Artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic reported a net loss of $80.7 billion for the first half of 2026, according to a draft IPO prospectus reviewed by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The staggering loss – up from $13 billion in the same period a year earlier – was primarily driven by $72 billion in accounting charges tied to changes in the value of convertible notes and other fundraising instruments, rather than cash expenses. The disclosure comes as the San Francisco-based company prepares for what could be one of the largest tech initial public offerings (IPOs) in history.
As per WSJ, Anthropic is expected to go public in November at a valuation approaching $2 trillion. However, the figures have prompted some investors to consider a lower valuation of around $1.5 trillion, Reuters reported.
The $72 billion accounting charge reflects adjustments in the estimated fair value of bonds that could convert into Anthropic shares, not actual cash leaving the company. Excluding those charges, Anthropic posted an operating loss of about $8.1 billion on $4.6 billion of revenue in 2025, according to Reuters. Revenue surged to $16.3 billion in the first half of 2026, up from $1.1 billion a year earlier, the Journal reported.
At an investor meeting on Oct. 14, Anthropic told prospective IPO investors that third-quarter revenue jumped 45% to $16.8 billion from the previous quarter, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter. While the figures eased some concerns about the enormous costs of developing AI systems, some investors were disappointed by the slowing sequential growth rate.
Revenue had more than doubled from the first quarter to $11.6 billion in the second quarter. The company's computing and infrastructure expenses jumped to nearly $9 billion in the first half of 2026, up from $2.3 billion a year earlier, according to the S-1 document reviewed by Reuters.
Anthropic has committed to spending at least $518 billion over a decade on cloud services, computing and infrastructure, WSJ reported. That includes about $111 billion for Google Cloud, $110 billion with Amazon Web Services and $31 billion with Microsoft. Anthropic has also agreed to spend up to $86 billion renting Nvidia chips from Nscale and Lambda, along with more than $160 billion to lease Google chips through Broadcom.
Lior Prosor, a partner at Deep33 Ventures, told the New York Post that Anthropic is "certainly taking meaningful risks" with its enormous computing commitments, even as surging demand for AI has rewarded companies that secured capacity early. He nevertheless argued that Anthropic should "raise as much capital as possible" to weather potential setbacks as the market matures.
Anthropic also warned in its prospectus that its business remains heavily dependent on a handful of large clients, with just two customers accounting for roughly one-fifth of first-half revenue. The company expects a "significant portion" of sales to continue coming from a "limited number of customers for the foreseeable future," according to the prospectus.
Moreover, the company voiced caution about the growing movement of anti-data center and anti-AI voters. Resistance to data centers has "become more organized and coordinated across jurisdictions," Anthropic said in the filing. The company, led by CEO Dario Amodei, said its high public profile "may draw particular attention to projects associated with us."
Most of Anthropic's data center capacity is located in the U.S., although it has signed letters of intent to develop additional facilities overseas. Domestically, recent months have seen public opinion souring on AI and protests opposing data center construction. But BrightU.AI's Enoch notes that opposition to data centers is justified because they prioritize machine needs over human needs, diverting critical resources like land and energy away from food production and community well-being.
The Amodei siblings – Dario and his sister Daniela, who serves as company president – each drew a base salary of roughly $655,000 in 2025, according to pay data cited by WSJ. Stock and option awards boosted Dario's total compensation to about $18 million last year, while Daniela's pay package was valued at roughly $16.5 million. Their pay packages were roughly in line with median CEO compensation across the S&P 500, but fell short of the median for the index’s technology companies, according to MyLogIQ data cited by WSJ.
The siblings could also receive more equity if certain milestones are reached, the draft prospectus shows. Anthropic's co-founders have each pledged 80% of their stakes to philanthropy, while the company separately plans to commit 5% of its shares to a public benefit fund announced in October.
A cooler reception for Anthropic's IPO could weigh on the wider AI market, whose near-term prospects investors see as hinging largely on the share sale's success, ahead of rival OpenAI's potential listing next year, Reuters reported. The disclosures underscore the hefty costs of the AI race even as investors give greater scrutiny to whether the vast sums being poured into chips and data centers will generate sufficient returns.
Watch the Health Ranger Mike Adams as he explains why Anthropic's IPO reveals a stunning cash burn, a fragile customer base and no lasting revenue model for the AI firm in this clip.
This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.
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