Anthropic silences cash-burn fears with surprise profit streak ahead of IPO

Anthropic, the AI model developer preparing for an initial public offering, is on track to post adjusted operating profit for two consecutive quarters this year, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Financial Times reported Sunday (local time) that Anthropic told investors it expects adjusted operating profit — excluding costs such as stock-based compensation — to be positive for two straight quarters.

The company appears to have sent the letter to quell investor concerns that it is burning through its cash reserves. In the letter, Anthropic told investors its gross margin exceeds 80 percent before deducting revenue-sharing arrangements with partners such as Amazon and AI model training costs.

Anthropic's revenue in the second quarter reached $11.5 billion, a 14-fold jump from the same period last year, allowing it to swing to adjusted operating profit for the first time. Its annualized revenue surged from $9 billion at the end of last year to $65 billion as of late July.

"If Anthropic maintains these margins and growth rates, it will be very difficult for competitors to catch up given Anthropic's vast computing resources," said Joey Brookhart, an analyst at SemiAnalysis. Brookhart also relayed investor projections that Anthropic's annualized revenue could reach $120 billion by the end of this year.

Anthropic had been expected to release its IPO prospectus last week but instead shared the financial update only with select investors. The move appears to reflect caution amid growing calls to slow the pace of AI development over fears that the technology could escape human control and cause harm. The debate intensified after Dario Amodei, Anthropic's co-founder and CEO, published a blog post on Sept. 12.

"Calls to slow or halt AI development are creating a complex and unpredictable environment for business planning," the Financial Times wrote. "Slowing development could save billions of dollars in model training costs, but it would also give competitors room to catch up."

Meanwhile, rival OpenAI said it would delay its IPO, which had been planned for this year, in light of the broader debate over the pace of AI development.