Anthropic Slips Into a Quarterly Operating Loss as Computing Bills Climb Before Its IPO

The Claude developer brought in $17 billion in third quarter revenue, yet it finished with an operating loss of $567 million, a sharp turn from the $974 million profit it booked a quarter earlier. According to an amended IPO filing released Monday, sequential revenue growth cooled to 47% after jumping 144% in the second quarter. Price cuts and contract discounts also trimmed roughly $600 million from sales, partly canceling out gains from heavier usage.

Why Anthropic Posted an Operating Loss

The company blamed the result mainly on about $5 billion of computing capacity bought through pricier short-term deals instead of cheaper multiyear contracts. A further $2 billion came from noncash charges linked to its donation-matching program. Stripping out items such as stock-based pay and charitable gifts, adjusted operating profit rose to $2.5 billion from $2.2 billion, but the adjusted margin slid to 15% from 19%.

Net Loss and Computing Commitments

Anthropic reported a $23.3 billion net loss, driven largely by a $21.9 billion accounting charge from revaluing convertible notes and related instruments as its enterprise valuation rose. The filing also lists $895.4 billion in multiyear purchase and lease commitments for computing and infrastructure, counting deals signed after Sept. 30. Around $69.8 billion of that comes due within 12 months of that date.