Intel / article

Anthropic tells investors quarterly revenue up nearly 50% to $16.8bn ahead of IPO

Source: simonwillison.net
Date: Published Oct 15, 2026

Context

Revenue growth and profitability answer different questions. In this link post, Simon Willison summarizes Financial Times reporting on what Anthropic told investors, including third-quarter revenue of $16.8bn and $1.70 in revenue for every $1 spent on computing power. That ratio measures one part of the business; it does not include every cost of operating the company.

The post separately cites an 11% adjusted operating margin that excludes stock-based compensation. Keeping those measures separate matters: neither a compute-cost ratio nor an adjusted margin is interchangeable with overall profitability. The figures come from people with knowledge of the investor presentation, as reported by the FT, rather than from published financial statements.

Key takeaways · AI-distilled

Simon Willison relays an FT report, sourced to people with knowledge of the matter, that Anthropic told investors quarterly revenue went from about $4.8bn in Q1 to $11.5bn in Q2 and $16.8bn in Q3 2026.
Per the same report, Anthropic earned $1.70 in revenue per $1 spent on computing power in Q3, with adjusted operating margins, excluding stock-based compensation, of 11%.
Anthropic reportedly told investors that rival labs distilling its models made up 5-7% of revenue and was cut back 'materially' in Q3; Willison's napkin math puts that at over half a billion dollars in Q2 if the share was 5%.

Terms in this piece · Glossary

distillation — Training a small, cheap model to imitate a big one's outputs, keeping much of the capability at a fraction of the cost.

Read the source simonwillison.net