Anthropic books $17 billion in revenue in three months, yet slips back into the red

On November 2, the website of the SEC, the U.S. securities regulator, posted a new version of Anthropic's prospectus. The original document (the S-1 form), made public the previous week to prepare the initial public offering, stopped at the first half of the year. This version adds the third quarter, which ended on September 30. For the first time, these are official figures, following the press estimates we covered in mid-October.

Revenue reaches about $17 billion over three months, up from $11.6 billion in the previous quarter and $1.4 billion a year earlier, according to Fortune. But operating income swings from a profit of $974 million to a loss of $567 million.

Why is the company losing money?

Operating expenses jump from $10.6 billion to $17.5 billion in one quarter. The document gives two main causes. The first: compute rented on a short-term basis, which "currently costs significantly more" than capacity reserved under multi-year contracts. The second: a $2 billion accounting charge, with no cash outflow, tied to a program that matches employees' donations.

On an adjusted basis, which excludes those donations and stock-based compensation, the business remains profitable, according to Fortune. Its margin nonetheless falls from 19% to 15%. The net loss reaches $23.3 billion, of which $21.9 billion is a purely accounting effect: the convertible bonds issued by Anthropic are revalued as the company's value rises. Over nine months, the net loss reaches $104 billion, according to CNBC, on $33.24 billion in revenue.

Slowing growth

Quarter-over-quarter revenue growth falls to about 47%, after 144% in the second quarter, according to figures reported by Fortune and CNBC. Anthropic also says it gave up about $600 million in revenue between the two quarters because of price cuts on its new models and contractual discounts.

The most dizzying figure lies elsewhere: about $895.4 billion in purchase and lease commitments, "almost entirely" tied to compute and infrastructure, according to the document cited by CNBC. The articles we read do not say over how many years they are spread. A large share relates to "Anthropic Direct," the company's future dedicated infrastructure. It is meant to replace short-term rental with cheaper capacity, once it is ready. At the end of September, Anthropic held $146.6 billion in liquidity, including investments and its credit line.

What to watch

No named analyst is quoted in the articles we consulted, but CNBC reports market concerns. Rising interest rates could make debt more expensive for data center builders. The latest quarterly results from the major cloud providers, whose AI spending weighs on their cash flow, have already revived those doubts. Investors are also wondering whether compute capacity will come online fast enough. The prospectus includes more than 90 pages of risk factors, among them political headwinds and the difficulty of balancing safety with commercial goals.

For a European customer of Claude, two signals matter. Prices are falling, but dependence on costly compute remains total. Next step: the investor roadshow, then the IPO price. We will then see whether markets will back a company that, as we wrote, does not want to hand them control.

Update of November 13, 2026

The timetable for Anthropic's IPO is now set. According to Fortune, a new version of the prospectus was filed on November 10 with the SEC, the U.S. securities regulator. It sets a range of $70 to $78 per share for 825 million shares. At the top of the range, the offering would raise up to $64.4 billion. It would value the company at up to $1,400 billion on a fully diluted basis, less than the roughly $2,000 billion mentioned by some media outlets a few weeks earlier. Seven strategic partners, including Google and Nvidia, have committed to buying $26 billion of non-voting shares at the IPO price. The range was announced as tech stocks were falling sharply, Fortune notes.

The final price is expected on November 18, with trading starting the next day on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT, according to investingLive. On November 12, Bloomberg reported that orders totaled about six times the number of shares on offer. That demand fuels speculation about a price above the range, which has not been raised at this stage. Anthropic plans to set aside up to 20% of the shares for individual investors.