Anthropic Revenue Jumps: $16.8B Q3, IPO Valuation Talk

The anthropic q3 revenue figure landed with a thud on Wall Street this week: the AI lab told investors on Wednesday that revenue reached $16.8 billion in the September quarter, up roughly 45% from the previous quarter. The private briefing at the company’s San Francisco headquarters, reported by Reuters, the Financial Times, and Bloomberg, also revealed the company stayed profitable on an adjusted basis for the second straight quarter.

Anthropic said it was free cash flow positive with an 11% adjusted operating margin in the third quarter — easing some investor anxiety that massive AI infrastructure spending was burning through cash without returns.

A Slower Growth Pace

The numbers were strong, but the pace is cooling. Anthropic’s revenue more than doubled from $4.7 billion in the first quarter to $11.6 billion in the second; the third quarter’s 45% growth marked a clear deceleration.

That slowdown has investors recalibrating. Reuters reported that some investors who attended the briefing discussed valuing the company at about $1.5 trillion — a quarter below the $2 trillion figure the market had initially expected for its highly anticipated IPO.

The IPO Clock

Anthropic had initially planned to list this month, but the schedule has slipped, and a November debut — after the U.S. midterm elections — now looks more likely. Its annualized revenue reached $65 billion earlier this year and could hit $100 billion by year-end, according to the New York Times, eclipsing rival OpenAI’s $50 billion annualized figure reported by Axios last week.

If the listing lands softly, analysts warn, it could chill the entire AI market — with OpenAI’s own IPO expected next year seen as the other key variable shaping the sector’s short-term outlook.

Source: Reuters