US AI Developer Anthropic Files for Nasdaq IPO as First-Half Revenue Rises 1,300 Percent
Anthropic, the developer of the Claude artificial intelligence models, has filed to list its Class A shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “ANT”. Its registration statement shows first-half 2026 revenue of 16.286 billion dollars. That is up 1,300 percent from a year earlier. The prospectus was filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 26 October. It leaves the price range, the number of shares and the proceeds blank. Net loss for the six months to 30 June was 80.748 billion dollars, against 12.969 billion dollars a year earlier. Of that loss, 72.388 billion dollars, or 89.6 percent on our calculation, came from changes in the fair value of convertible notes, derivative liabilities and simple agreements for future equity. The filing ties those changes mainly to a higher enterprise valuation. The operating loss for the half was 693 million dollars. The second quarter alone made an operating profit of 974 million dollars.
The second quarter turned an operating profit
Revenue for the three months to 30 June 2026 was 11.555 billion dollars. That is 144.2 percent more than the 4.731 billion dollars of the first quarter, on our calculation, and 1,368 percent more than a year earlier, as the company states it. The second quarter alone brought 71.0 percent of first-half revenue, on our calculation. It also brought 2.5 times the 4.585 billion dollars of revenue for the whole of 2025, on our calculation.
Operating income was 974 million dollars, an operating margin of 8.4 percent on our calculation. It is the first operating profit among the six quarters the filing tabulates, on our count; the previous five all show operating losses. In the first quarter of 2026 the operating loss was 1.667 billion dollars, a negative margin of 35.2 percent on our calculation.
Revenue outgrew compute. Compute and infrastructure expense rose 64.1 percent quarter on quarter to 5.558 billion dollars, on our calculation, while revenue rose 144.2 percent. The cost fell to 48 percent of revenue, from 251 percent in the first quarter of 2025. Revenue left after compute and infrastructure expense was 5.997 billion dollars, or 51.9 percent of revenue, on our calculation. Personnel, sales and other operating costs come on top of that.
Quarter-on-quarter growth slowed through 2025 and then picked up, on our calculation. It eased from 109.3 percent in the second quarter of 2025 to 47.6 percent in the fourth, on our calculation. On our calculation, it then reached 131.9 percent in the first quarter of 2026 and 144.2 percent in the second. Second-quarter 2026 revenue was 30.7 times the 376 million dollars of the first quarter of 2025, on our calculation.
Quarterly revenue and compute cost
| Quarter | Revenue | Compute cost |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 376 | 944 |
| Q2 2025 | 787 | 1,390 |
| Q3 2025 | 1,382 | 2,047 |
| Q4 2025 | 2,040 | 2,945 |
| Q1 2026 | 4,731 | 3,387 |
| Q2 2026 | 11,555 | 5,558 |
Quarterly figures in millions of dollars, from the company’s Form S-1. Compute cost is the filing’s compute and infrastructure expense.
Quarterly operating result
| Quarter | Operating result |
|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | -935 |
| Q2 2025 | -1,200 |
| Q3 2025 | -3,089 |
| Q4 2025 | -2,836 |
| Q1 2026 | -1,667 |
| Q2 2026 | 974 |
Millions of dollars, from the company’s Form S-1. Negative figures are operating losses. The third quarter of 2025 includes a 1.5 billion dollar charge to settle the Bartz litigation.
Where an 80.7 billion dollar loss comes from
The operating loss for the first half shrank 67.5 percent, on our calculation, to 693 million dollars from 2.135 billion dollars. Interest income rose 866 percent to 1.111 billion dollars. That was more than the operating loss itself, on our calculation. Two fair-value lines below it are far larger, and together they exceed the whole net loss, on our calculation. The fair-value change on convertible notes, derivative liabilities and simple agreements for future equity was a charge of 72.388 billion dollars. A further 8.757 billion dollars of other expense reflected the initial recognition and changes in the fair value of assets and liabilities under note purchase agreements, the filing said. Set those two lines aside and the pre-tax result would be a profit of 418 million dollars for the half and 1.736 billion dollars for the second quarter, on our calculation. Those two figures are our illustration, not a measure the company reports.
The company’s own non-GAAP measure points the same way, on our reading. Adjusted operating income was 1.618 billion dollars in the first half. That gave an adjusted operating margin of 10 percent. A year earlier the company had an adjusted operating loss of 1.849 billion dollars. Operating activities provided 3.929 billion dollars of cash in the first half, equal to 24.1 percent of revenue on our calculation. A year earlier they used 1.513 billion dollars.
The accumulated deficit reached 132.902 billion dollars at 30 June. The filing says 113.2 billion dollars of it relates to fair-value changes on the convertible notes and derivative liabilities since 2023. That is more than 85 percent of the total, on our calculation.
First-half income statement
| Line ($m) | H1 2025 | H1 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 1,163 | 16,286 | 1,300% |
| Compute cost | 2,334 | 8,945 | 283% |
| Personnel | 538 | 3,152 | 486% |
| Sales, marketing, and partnerships | 120 | 3,168 | 2,540% |
| Operating loss | -2,135 | -693 | -67.5% |
| Fair-value change on notes and SAFEs | -10,942 | -72,388 | 562% |
| Net loss | -12,969 | -80,748 | 522.6% |
In millions of dollars. Compute cost is the filing’s compute and infrastructure expense. Changes are as the filing prints them, except operating loss and net loss, which are our calculation. The rise in personnel cost includes a 1.9 billion dollar increase in stock-based compensation.
Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments were 131.651 billion dollars at 30 June, 7.8 times first-half operating expenses of 16.979 billion dollars, on our calculation. Financing brought in 110.774 billion dollars in the half. In September the company amended and restated its credit agreement, which now provides a 15 billion dollar senior secured revolving credit facility maturing on 4 September 2031. Amazon’s two convertible notes total 6.203 billion dollars of principal, on our sum, and are convertible into 1,840,444,962 Class N shares, on our sum. Unless Amazon elects to waive the limit, no conversion may take its holding above 12 percent of the company’s capitalization.
Customers, revenue mix and a five-class share structure
Customers generating 100,000 dollars or more of revenue over the trailing 12 months numbered more than 11,900 at 30 September 2026, against more than 950 a year earlier. More than 1,900 paid 1 million dollars or more, and an estimated 250 paid 10 million dollars or more, the company said. The company puts net revenue retention, by the company’s definition, at an estimated 900 percent as of 30 September 2026. No single customer accounted for more than 10 percent of revenue in the nine months to September. Customers outside the top five supplied an estimated 79 percent of third-quarter revenue, up from an estimated 64 percent in the first quarter, by the company’s account. Consumption-based fees made up 80 percent of first-half revenue, or 13.1 billion dollars; subscriptions supplied the other 20 percent.
The company is a Delaware public benefit corporation, with a stated purpose of “the responsible development and maintenance of advanced AI for the long-term benefit of humanity”. After the listing it will have five classes of common stock, on our count. Class A shares carry one vote each. Class N shares, owned primarily by strategic business partners, carry no vote except where the law requires one. They generally convert into Class A on a sale or transfer to an unaffiliated third party. A single Class T share, owned by the Long-Term Benefit Trust, generally gives the trust the authority to elect and remove the Class T directors, who together will make up a majority of the board. The trust is intended to operate as an independent body of financially disinterested trustees. The trust has no decision-making authority over day-to-day management or strategy. A single Class F share, to be issued to a company whose initial members are the seven co-founders, will carry 50.1 percent of the total voting power on matters put to stockholders generally. The voting power of Class A holders is limited to 49.9 percent in aggregate. Class E shares, for employees other than the co-founders, vote on limited matters. Classes T, F and E carry no economic rights. The company says it is a controlled company under Nasdaq governance rules.
The company has also contributed 846,840,960 Class N shares to Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, LLC. They represent 5 percent of its fully diluted shares at 30 June, assuming full conversion of the Amazon notes. Further issuances of up to 2 percent of the shares then outstanding can follow each time the share price rises 50 percent above the previous milestone, starting from the offering price. The co-founders have each pledged 80 percent of their personal equity in the company to philanthropic causes. Dario Amodei, the chief executive, beneficially owns 245,259,100 Class A shares. Tom Brown, Jack Clark, Jared Kaplan, Sam McCandlish and Christopher Olah are listed among the selling stockholders. The cover names 22 underwriters, on our count, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley first. The company intends to use its net proceeds for general corporate purposes, including investment in compute and infrastructure and the hiring and retention of skilled staff. The use of proceeds also covers anticipated tax withholding and remittance obligations on settling restricted stock units.
Why it matters: The company made an operating profit of 974 million dollars in the second quarter. Its operations also brought in 3.929 billion dollars of cash in the first half. The headline loss mostly reflects, on our reading, the higher fair value of its convertible notes, which the filing links to a rising enterprise valuation. Costs can run ahead of revenue, on our reading, since the filing says compute is procured 12 to 18 months in advance of availability.
Outlook: The price range, share count and proceeds remain blank in this prospectus, as do third-quarter revenue and run-rate revenue at 31 October. The company says it expects more short-term compute to compress its operating margin and adjusted operating margin in the near term. Its amended credit agreement requires liquidity of at least 5 billion dollars from the quarter ending 31 December 2026.
Correction, 27 October 2026: An earlier version did not state that Amazon may waive the 12 percent limit on converting its notes.
Sources: Anthropic, US Securities and Exchange Commission, The Edge.
