Anthropic’s third-quarter 2026 revenue rose 45% to reach $16.8 billion. In the second quarter, revenue was $11.6 billion, and in the first quarter it was approximately $4.7 billion. The figures were shared at an investor meeting in San Francisco. The company reached profitability on an adjusted basis, but the details are not clear since it is a private company. Anthropic, which is preparing for an IPO, is said to be targeting a valuation of more than $2 trillion, and the IPO could be pushed to after the US midterm elections in November. The IPO is expected to take place before OpenAI’s. Analysts project that annualized revenue could reach $110 billion by the end of 2026. In 2025, the company posted an operating loss of more than $8 billion on approximately $4.6 billion in revenue, and it has infrastructure commitments of at least $518 billion spread over 10 years.
Why it matters
This picture points to a threshold where, for the first time, the financial reality that artificial intelligence companies have been able to keep hidden from the public before going public will be seen by a broad audience. If Anthropic steps onto the stock market before OpenAI, it will produce the first example of whether the sector’s massive valuations can pass the test of public markets; this concerns not only the company’s existing investors but the entire market, which approaches the AI field with caution. The billions of dollars in operating losses and infrastructure commitments spread over a decade, set against rapidly growing revenue, form the fundamental question potential shareholders will seek to answer: can growth catch up with spending? The lack of full clarity on financial details due to its private company status and the timing uncertainty tied to the election calendar are the other questions that remain open.
Background
Anthropic is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 33 news stories mentioning this name in the last 90 days; the most recent is dated October 9, 2026.
Term: initial public offering
An initial public offering is when a company’s shares begin trading on a stock exchange for the first time; while raising capital, the company also assumes the obligation of regular financial reporting to the public.