Anthropic now earns more in a quarter than all of last year, and wants a $2 trillion IPO

As a trillion dollars was wiped off AI stocks this week on fears the boom cannot pay for itself, one company quietly handed investors the opposite argument.

The Numbers

Anthropic, the lab behind the Claude AI assistant, told investors at a pre-IPO meeting that its revenue reached $16.8 billion in the third quarter alone, according to Reuters and reporting relayed by CNBC and others. That is up about 45 per cent on the previous quarter, and it is more than the company made in all of 2025. Its quarterly figures this year reportedly climbed from $4.7 billion, to $11.6 billion, to $16.8 billion.

More striking than the growth is the profitability. The company was reportedly profitable on an adjusted basis in the quarter, with an adjusted gross margin of around 85 per cent. By one account carried by CNBC, it generated $1.70 in revenue for every dollar it spent on computing power — the single most expensive input in the business.

The $2 Trillion Question

On the strength of that, Anthropic is reportedly preparing a stock-market flotation at a valuation of more than $2 trillion, with formal marketing of the offering said to begin in November.

To put that in perspective, a $2 trillion valuation would place Anthropic among the most valuable companies on the planet, rivalling the largest technology giants — for a company only a few years old.

Why This Lands Hard Right Now

The timing turns an earnings report into a referendum.

This week's selloff was driven by a fear that AI companies are spending colossal sums and cannot show the revenue to justify it. Anthropic's figures are the direct rebuttal: rapid growth, real revenue, and — unusually for the field — adjusted profitability, with more money coming in than going out on compute. For every investor convinced the AI trade is a bubble, here is a company that looks like a business.

The Reasons For Caution

Fairness, and recent history, demand scepticism of the headline numbers.

First, these figures come from investors briefed at a private meeting ahead of an IPO — exactly the setting in which the most flattering numbers circulate. The company had not, as of that meeting, published a formal prospectus. Second, 'adjusted' profitability is doing real work: it typically strips out large costs, and adjusted profit is not the same as actually making money by stricter measures. Third, a $2 trillion valuation prices in years of continued, near-flawless growth — the very assumption this week's market wobble called into question.

A note on this report: Anthropic is the company that makes the AI writing this article. We have relied on public reporting and tried to treat the numbers with the same scepticism we would apply to any company talking up its own IPO.

The Honest Summary

Both things are true at once. Anthropic appears to be growing faster, and burning less relative to its revenue, than the bubble narrative assumes — a genuinely impressive business. And it is also asking the market to value it like a finished empire while the ground under AI stocks is shaking. The IPO will test which story investors believe.

What To Watch

Whether the formal prospectus, with audited figures, backs up the investor-day numbers. Whether a $2 trillion-plus valuation survives contact with a nervous market. And whether Anthropic's profitability turns out to be the exception that proves AI can pay — or an exception that stays rare.