Anthropic Says Q3 Revenue Hit $16.8 Billion as IPO Preparations Accelerate

Anthropic told investors it brought in $16.8 billion in revenue during the third quarter, Business Insider reported. The company behind Claude also said it achieved profitability on an adjusted basis last quarter, according to the report.

The revenue figure marks a sharp jump from previously reported revenue of $4.8 billion in the first quarter and around $11.6 billion in the second quarter. Business Insider notes that third-quarter revenue was up almost 50% from the second quarter.

Anthropic shared the figures at an investor meeting tied to interest in its planned initial public offering. Business Insider reported that the company is expected to list in November at a valuation that could approach $2 trillion, which would be the largest ever at IPO.

Because Anthropic is still private, these revenue glimpses are important signals for investors assessing both the company and the broader AI market. Investors are also viewing Anthropic’s revenue as a proxy for its competition with OpenAI.

Business Insider reported that it is unclear whether the new revenue tally counts gross or net revenue, or how Anthropic arrived at its definition of profitability. The article also notes that Anthropic has historically counted gross sales through cloud partners as revenue, even though the company does not receive the full sum as cash.

A spokesperson for Anthropic declined to comment. That leaves the details behind the reported revenue and adjusted profitability as important questions ahead of any public listing.

Business Insider linked Anthropic’s growth to state-of-the-art AI models and strong adoption of Claude Code, its AI coding tool. The company also announced in May that it closed a $65 billion funding round, valuing it at $965 billion.

The competitive landscape is shifting as open-source and open-weight models improve and some developers move work away from Anthropic and OpenAI tools to cut costs. OpenAI is waging a price war with Anthropic, while Meta, Google, and SpaceXAI are also pushing forward with model capabilities and AI products.

The report also highlights renewed AI safety concerns following the resignation of Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who warned about the risks of AI. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei later published an essay calling for companies to slow the pace of AI model capability improvements so safety measures can keep up.

For readers following the IPO, the takeaway is that Anthropic’s financial momentum is arriving alongside major questions about revenue quality, computing costs, competition, and AI safety.