Anthropic tells investors Q3 revenue hit $16.8bn, FT says

Anthropic told prospective investors on Wednesday, October 14, that its third-quarter revenue rose to $16.8bn, the Financial Times reported. The disclosure came at a gathering at the Claude developer's San Francisco headquarters ahead of its expected stock market listing. According to Reuters' summary of the FT report, the company also told investors it turned a profit in the quarter.ft.com+1

These numbers give institutional buyers their first look at Anthropic's quarterly results as it pursues what CNBC described as possibly the largest initial public offering in history, at a valuation that could reach $2 trillion.tradingview.com

A test for the valuation

Bloomberg first reported the meeting. Anthropic declined to comment to CNBC, which said the event would let executives and bankers gauge investor interest in the updated financials. Prospective buyers have put the company's value at $1.8 trillion to $2 trillion. That is about double the $965bn post-money valuation from its May Series H round, according to Yahoo Finance. People familiar with the plans told CNBC that Anthropic's revenue could top $100bn by the end of the year.finance.yahoo.com+2

Expectations were high. Macro Hive strategist Viresh Kanabar said the company's year-end revenue target implied third-quarter revenue of about $18bn, and that a much lower figure would disappoint. The FT had reported in September that Anthropic expected a second straight quarter of adjusted operating profit in the third quarter.moomoo.com+1

Margins and compute in focus

Momei Qu of PSP Growth told Bloomberg she expected the discussion to center on trade-offs between growth and capital spending. Janus Henderson's Jonathan Cofsky said he would track the profit or loss on each query and how much computing capacity Anthropic has committed to buy. A leaked prospectus reported by Reuters showed 2025 revenue of about $4.6bn, a net loss of about $42bn and $518bn in compute commitments.bloomberg.com+2

How revenue is counted is also under scrutiny. The week before, OpenAI gave investors a revenue figure of $50bn, below the widely reported $70bn, because it excluded cloud-partner sales. The confusion weighed on chip stocks and the Nasdaq Composite, CNBC reported. Before the meeting, it was not clear whether Anthropic's figures would include partner revenue.cnbc.com

November timetable

Anthropic has filed confidentially with the SEC but has not made its S-1 financials public. Reuters has reported a November listing. Formal marketing could start the week of November 9, with trading targeted before Thanksgiving on November 26.finance.yahoo.com+1

Market conditions could still affect the deal. Rising interest rates have hit parts of the AI trade. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said this week that access to capital could become the biggest constraint on AI companies.cnbc.com