Key points
- Anthropic's computing costs rose to 58% of revenue from 48%
- Anthropic's filing shows an operating loss behind its adjusted profit
- Anthropic still hasn't set a price range for its IPO
Anthropic's computing costs rose from 48% of its revenue to 58% in a single quarter, while revenue grew 47%, according to its amended IPO filing, made public on November 2. That ratio, the share of each sales dollar spent on the chips and data centers that run Claude, will be important to whether the business becomes more profitable as it grows.
The jump helped turn the $974 million operating profit Anthropic reported for the second quarter into a $567 million operating loss in the third, under standard accounting. In October, Anthropic had told prospective investors the quarter was profitable on an adjusted basis. Revenue reached $17.0 billion in the three months ended September 30, up from $1.4 billion a year earlier and slightly more than the $16.8 billion Anthropic presented at its October 14 investor day.
The filing points to two costs. One is $5.0 billion of computing power bought under short-term commitments, which Anthropic says costs significantly more than computing power bought under its multi-year deals. The other is $2.0 billion of non-cash charges tied to a donation matching program for employees. The price range for the IPO is still blank.
Why did Anthropic lose money on $17 billion of revenue?
Compute and infrastructure expenses rose to $9.86 billion in the third quarter from $5.56 billion in the second, a 77% increase, by our calculations. The $5.0 billion of short-term compute alone was about 29% of revenue.
Anthropic said its efficiency gains were partly offset by new computing capacity, including the short-term deals. "This reduced revenue per dollar of compute compared to the preceding quarter," the filing says.
The donation charge works differently. Employees can pledge part of their equity awards to charity, and Anthropic matches those pledges with shares of its Class N common stock. Because the match is paid in shares, the charge is non-cash, and its value is linked to employee equity awards. Other operating and administrative expenses rose to $3.59 billion from $1.03 billion in the second quarter.
Anthropic's adjusted measure, which leaves out stock-based compensation and the donation charges, still shows a profit. Adjusted operating income rose to $2.5 billion from $2.2 billion, while the adjusted operating margin fell to 15% from 19%.
Is Anthropic's revenue growth slowing?
From the second quarter to the third, revenue grew 47%, by our calculations. From the first quarter to the second, it grew 144%. Measured against a year earlier, third-quarter revenue was up 1,127%.
The filing warns that this pace won't last. "We do not expect our revenue will continue to grow at comparable rates, and we cannot assure you that it will continue to grow at all," Anthropic wrote. Revenue for the first nine months of 2026 came to $33.2 billion.
What else changed in the amended filing?
The net loss for the third quarter was $23.3 billion. Of that, $21.9 billion came from non-cash changes in the value of convertible notes, derivatives, and other financing instruments, the same kind of charge that drove the $80.7 billion first-half loss in the original filing. The nine-month net loss reached $104.0 billion.
At September 30, Anthropic held $95.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents and $36.3 billion in short-term investments, compared with $112.4 billion and $19.3 billion at June 30. It also had $14.8 billion available under its credit facility.
The filing puts the spending Anthropic had committed to as of September 30, plus deals signed since, at about $895.4 billion, almost all of it for compute and infrastructure. About $447.5 billion of that is expected before the end of 2030. We covered the $245 billion of deals signed or amended after June when the first filing came out.
The share count and price will come in a later amendment. Anthropic has applied to list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market as ANT, and a Japanese filing made public on November 2 showed it plans to sell up to $3.5 billion of the shares in Japan. Our Anthropic IPO tracker will add the range when it's filed.
