Anthropic tells investors it is profitable as quarterly revenue hits $16.8 billion
The AI developer reported adjusted profitability in the third quarter, according to attendees at an investor meeting. The claim comes amid mounting questions about whether the industry's rapidly growing revenues can cover the costs of chips, data centers and increasingly powerful models.
Anthropic told prospective investors on Wednesday that its revenue surged 45% in the third quarter from the previous quarter, according to two people who attended an investor day. The growth could help ease concerns about the enormous costs of developing and operating advanced AI systems.
Third-quarter revenue rose to $16.8 billion from $11.6 billion in the second quarter and $4.7 billion in the first quarter, the attendees said. Anthropic also told the group that it was profitable on an adjusted basis in the third quarter, they added.
The meeting in San Francisco was intended to familiarize prospective investors with Anthropic ahead of its highly anticipated initial public offering.
The IPO is expected to precede a public listing by rival OpenAI, positioning Anthropic as an early test of investor appetite for AI developers that are investing heavily to achieve massive scale. The companies' spending on computing infrastructure and model development has raised questions about whether rapid revenue growth can translate into sustainable profits. Anthropic's public-market debut is likely to be delayed until after the November U.S. midterm elections, Reuters has reported.
Attendees at Wednesday's event met with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Chief Financial Officer Krishna Rao. Several told Reuters as they left the company's headquarters that they were encouraged by its rapid revenue growth and path to profitability.
Amodei reiterated the company's focus on AI safety but avoided discussing the risk of human extinction, one attendee said. In its prospectus, seen by Reuters last month, Anthropic warned that advanced AI could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity.”
On Wednesday, however, executives discussed how Anthropic was using its own AI tools to improve its business, including to help design a custom chip. The company also handed out hats to attendees, some bearing the word “thinking.”
Anthropic's annual revenue run rate could reach $110 billion by the end of the year, according to estimates from analysts who met with company executives earlier this week. Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Scrutiny of AI companies' finances has intensified as they pour money into chips, data centers and computing power needed to develop and operate increasingly powerful models.
Anthropic is seeking a valuation of more than $2 trillion and must convince investors that its breakneck revenue growth can eventually outpace the enormous costs of building and running AI systems.
Last year, Anthropic's revenue increased twelvefold to nearly $4.6 billion, even as the company recorded an operating loss of more than $8 billion, excluding writedowns of various liabilities, mostly tied to previous fundraising.
The company has committed at least $518 billion over a decade to cloud services, computing and infrastructure.
Founded by former OpenAI executives, Anthropic has emerged as one of the leading developers of generative AI, with its Claude family of models. Its expansion has been supported by Alphabet's Google and Amazon, which are simultaneously investors, computing-power suppliers and important distribution partners, as well as competitors in the AI market.
Anthropic has also sought to distinguish itself through its emphasis on AI safety, warning about the dangers posed by increasingly capable systems even as it competes to develop and commercialize more powerful models.
Research by the company has found that its own AI agents engaged in troubling behavior in test environments, including leaking sensitive information and sabotaging code. Anthropic has said, however, that it has not seen evidence of such misalignment in real-world deployments.
