Anthropic Told Investors Its Revenue Hit $16.8 Billion Last Quarter, Setting Up a November IPO

Anthropic has started showing its books to investors, and the numbers tell a story of extraordinarily fast growth. The company reported $16.8 billion in revenue for the third quarter to people it's courting ahead of an initial public offering that could arrive as early as November, according to people familiar with the matter.

That figure puts Anthropic's growth trajectory in sharp relief. Revenue climbed from $11.6 billion in the second quarter, which itself was more than double the $4.7 billion the company brought in during the first quarter, the people said. In other words, Anthropic's quarterly revenue has grown roughly 3.5 times over just six months.

Alongside the revenue figures, Anthropic told investors it was profitable on an adjusted basis in the third quarter. It also said it was cash-flow positive, meaning the money flowing in is now outpacing what's going out — a meaningful claim for a company that, like its AI rivals, spends heavily on the computing infrastructure needed to train and run large models. According to the Financial Times, Anthropic generated $1.70 in revenue for every dollar it spent on computing power during the quarter.

That ratio matters because it gets at the central question hanging over every major AI company right now: whether the enormous sums being poured into compute will ever be matched by actual revenue. A number like $1.70 for every dollar spent gives investors something concrete to point to, rather than relying on growth promises alone.

Investors appear to be betting the momentum holds. The Wall Street Journal reports that they expect Anthropic to reach $110 billion in annualized revenue by the end of the year. Annualized figures project a single period's revenue pace out across a full year, so the number reflects where backers think Anthropic's run rate is headed, not money already booked. Still, it signals real confidence in the trajectory heading into the offering.

How the figures surfaced

CNBC had previously reported that Anthropic planned to disclose its third-quarter results for the first time at a meeting with prospective investors, including institutional investors, citing two people familiar with the matter. The revenue, profitability and cash-flow figures now circulating appear to be exactly what came out of that session — Anthropic effectively running its own pre-IPO roadshow, laying out its financial case directly to the people it hopes will buy in once shares are available.

That approach is notable in itself. Rather than waiting for a formal prospectus to make its numbers public, Anthropic is getting ahead of the process, building investor appetite and setting expectations before the IPO machinery kicks into gear. For a company of Anthropic's size and profile, how those early conversations land can shape the entire valuation conversation that follows.

The bigger picture here is straightforward: Anthropic is trying to prove it can scale AI into a genuinely profitable business, not just a fast-growing one burning cash to keep up. The combination of tripling-plus revenue growth across three quarters, a claimed adjusted profit, and a compute-to-revenue ratio above one is the kind of package built specifically to answer the skepticism that's followed AI spending for the past couple of years.

What happens next will say a lot about how that pitch is landing. If the IPO does arrive in November as reported, the market will get its own chance to weigh in on whether $16.8 billion in quarterly revenue, and the growth curve behind it, justifies whatever price Anthropic ultimately sets.