Anthropic files S-1: half-year revenue of $16.3 billion, with a valuation of up to $2 trillion expected

Anthropic has formally filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the SEC, starting the process of going public. The key figure in the document: revenue for the first half of 2026 was $16.3 billion. A year ago, the same period brought in about $1.2 billion, which means growth of roughly 14x. In all of 2025 the company earned $4.6 billion, so in six months of 2026 it nearly quadrupled last year's total. Anthropic also tells investors that revenue grew a further 45% in the third quarter of 2026.

The $80.7 billion loss and what it consists of

The headline loss for the half-year looks alarming: $80.7 billion. But about $72 billion of that is a revaluation of debt instruments that will convert into shares. It is an accounting effect of the company's rising valuation, not money spent on servers and salaries. Actual expenses for the half-year came to about $17 billion:

• compute and infrastructure: about $9 billion;
• marketing and sales: $3.2 billion;
• personnel: $3.2 billion;
• other: about $1.7 billion.

With these numbers, the operating loss comes out modest, at $0.7 billion. In effect, Anthropic has nearly broken even. In the third quarter, the company says, it is already profitable on paper.

The compute thesis and the price of growth

The main argument for investors is that compute costs are growing more slowly than revenue. Second-quarter data supports this. Infrastructure takes about 55% of the half-year's revenue, which is impressive progress for a company that trains and serves frontier models.

There is a caveat. Sales and marketing spending was about $0.1 billion a year ago and now exceeds $3 billion. That means part of the revenue was bought, and marketing now eats nearly a fifth of revenue. If growth slows, this line item will be one of the first things management gets asked about.

A $132 billion cushion and commitments through 2045

Anthropic holds about $132 billion. That is an enormous cushion, but alongside it sit compute contracts worth hundreds of billions of dollars, stretching to 2045. Commitments like these cannot simply be cut if demand drops. The whole structure rests on the assumption that revenue will keep growing faster than costs. For the data center and chip supplier markets, it is also a signal: one of the largest buyers of capacity is prepared to sign contracts two decades out.

The valuation at which Anthropic will go public has not yet been disclosed. The expected range is $1.5–2 trillion.

Effectively non-voting shares

The governance structure leaves buyers almost no influence. Through a single special share, the seven founders will hold 50.1% of the votes after the IPO, and the same people will keep making the key decisions. New shareholders will get a stake in the growth, but not in the management.

What to consider if you build on Anthropic's models

For teams that build the company's models into their products, the S-1 offers a rare chance to assess a vendor by the numbers. First, 14x revenue growth shows that enterprise and developer demand is backed by actual money. Second, compute is the largest expense, so API prices and rate limits will depend on the cost of capacity and on whether the company can hold its margins.

Third, contracts through 2045 mean the company expects to be around for a long time, but it is also bound by rigid commitments. Fourth, founder control lowers the risk of an abrupt change of strategy under shareholder pressure. It makes sense to build in the ability to switch between providers from the start, and to follow the company's public filings every quarter: they will now come out regularly.