Anthropic Opens Its Books Ahead of Its IPO. The Claude Maker Has Some Explaining to Do

Anthropic's IPO filing has finally put a price tag on the business behind Claude, and some of the numbers are hard to wrap your head around. Revenue is growing at an extraordinary pace, but so are the bills. The company has signed hundreds of billions of dollars in computing deals, giving investors plenty to consider before it makes its stock market debut.

Where the money comes from

Anthropic brought in $16.29B during the first half of 2026, up 1,304% from a year earlier, according to its filing. Much of that growth is coming from businesses using Claude in their products, software, and everyday operations.

Rather than relying primarily on monthly subscriptions, Anthropic charges businesses based on how much AI they use. Those payments account for 80% of revenue, while subscriptions such as Claude Pro and Max contribute the rest.

That makes business adoption especially important. Once a company builds Claude into its workflow, usage can increase as more employees and customers rely on it. More than 11.9K customers spent at least $100K over the past year, with roughly 250 spending $10M or more.

What's behind the enormous loss?

Anthropic reported an $80.7B loss for the first half of 2026, a figure that looks particularly strange next to its revenue. Fortunately, there's an explanation that makes the situation considerably less alarming.

Most of the loss came from accounting adjustments involving convertible notes, which are loans that can eventually turn into company shares. As Anthropic's valuation increased, the value of those notes rose too, creating a large expense on paper rather than an equivalent cash payment.

The company's operating loss was much smaller at $693M, compared with $2.1B a year earlier. That suggests Anthropic is making progress toward covering its running costs, although it hasn't reached profitability.

The improvement is encouraging, particularly given how much infrastructure Anthropic needs to support its expanding customer base.

Keeping Claude running comes at a price

Every time someone uses Claude, Anthropic needs computing power to process the request. Multiply that across millions of users and businesses, and the company needs an enormous amount of infrastructure to keep everything running.

That's why Anthropic has been signing long-term agreements with some of the biggest names in technology. Its deal with SpaceXSPCX alone could cost up to $120.5B through 2029, with monthly payments potentially reaching $3.1B once all the capacity is delivered.

The partnership began with Anthropic taking all of Colossus 1, a facility containing more than 220K Nvidia GPUs. SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen told investors in October that new computing deployments were recovering their costs in less than a year.

MicrosoftMSFT is another major partner, with Anthropic agreeing to spend at least $44.9B through May 2033. AmazonAMZN and Google also have substantial agreements with the company.

Across six partners, Anthropic's commitments exceed $500B over the next decade. Some contracts require payment regardless of whether the company actually uses all the capacity.

That could become a problem if demand grows more slowly than Anthropic expects. The company would still have to pay for computing power it reserved years earlier.

How much can Anthropic afford?

Anthropic had $131.7B in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments at the end of June, so it has substantial resources to fund its expansion.

However, the bills are piling up. Non-cancelable purchase commitments grew from $54.6B at the end of 2025 to $265.6B by June, while future lease obligations climbed from $50.2B to $321.4B.

The company also spends heavily to reach customers. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft's cloud marketplaces generated 48% of first-half revenue, but Anthropic paid $2.7B to distribution partners over the same period.

These partnerships help businesses access Claude through cloud services they already use. They also mean Anthropic depends heavily on the same technology companies supplying much of its computing infrastructure.

Prospective shareholders should also pay attention to who controls the company. Anthropic's seven co-founders will retain 50.1% of voting power through a special Class F share, leaving outside investors with limited influence over major decisions.

Anthropic plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley leading the offering. Its last private funding round raised $65B in May.

Claude is already bringing in serious money, and Anthropic is getting closer to covering its operating costs. But the company has also committed to spending on a scale few businesses ever attempt. Investors will have to decide whether its future earnings can justify those obligations.