Anthropic Tells Investors Its Third Quarter Revenue Reached $16.8 Billion Ahead of IPO

Anthropic told prospective investors on October 14, 2026 that its revenue for the third quarter reached $16.8 billion, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to CNBC. The company also said it was profitable on an adjusted basis in the quarter, the people said, weeks before an initial public offering reportedly planned for November.

The figures were shared at a meeting with institutional investors at Anthropic's San Francisco headquarters, a meeting Bloomberg first reported, according to CNBC. They give potential buyers of what CNBC says could be the largest IPO in history a look at quarterly revenue, a different measure from the annualized run rates that Anthropic and OpenAI have cited in AI funding talks. The Financial Times, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Information all reported the numbers.

What did Anthropic tell investors?

Anthropic told investors on October 14 that third quarter revenue was $16.8 billion, up from $11.6 billion in the second quarter and $4.7 billion in the first, people familiar with the matter told CNBC. Chief Executive Dario Amodei and Chief Financial Officer Krishna Rao presented the figures, Implicator.ai reported.

The company also said it was cash flow positive in the quarter and generated $1.70 in revenue for every dollar spent on computing power (Financial Times via CNBC). Applied to $16.8 billion, that ratio works out to roughly $9.9 billion of compute spending in the quarter, by this site's arithmetic. Anthropic reported an adjusted operating margin of 11% for the year through the third quarter (The Information via The Decoder), and the third quarter was its second straight quarter of adjusted profitability (Financial Times via The Decoder).

Anthropic also told investors that 5% to 7% of its revenue came from distillation, according to The Decoder. Distillation means rival labs use a model's outputs to train their own models. Anthropic has moved to block the practice and told investors that distillation revenue will likely drop and weigh on the current quarter, The Decoder reported.

Why do the growth figures differ between outlets?

The outlets describe the same comparison, third quarter against second quarter, but give different percentages: the Financial Times headline says revenue jumped 50%, while the headlines of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times say 45%. On CNBC's figures, $16.8 billion against $11.6 billion works out to about 45% growth.

The second quarter base also varies slightly between reports. Bloomberg reported on August 14, 2026 that second quarter revenue exceeded $11.5 billion, according to The Next Web, and against that base the increase works out to about 46%. The Journal's "nearly $17 billion" is the same $16.8 billion, rounded.

Is Anthropic's growth slowing?

Yes, by the figures Anthropic gave investors: revenue grew about 45% from the second quarter to the third, after about 147% from the first quarter to the second, Implicator.ai reported. In dollars, the quarterly gain shrank from about $6.9 billion to about $5.2 billion.

The Decoder names a summer slowdown in usage as one likely factor and points to OpenAI's Astra, launched in September, as new competition. The figures reportedly disappointed some potential investors, several of whom now expect Anthropic's bankers to lower valuation expectations, possibly below $1.5 trillion, partly because the company did not discuss its September run rate or a full year outlook, according to The Decoder. Investors expect Anthropic to reach $110 billion in annualized revenue by year end (WSJ via CNBC).

How does this compare with OpenAI?

The numbers are not directly comparable: Anthropic's $16.8 billion is revenue booked over three months, while OpenAI told investors its annualized run rate was roughly $50 billion at the end of September, the Financial Times reported and CNBC confirmed on October 8. Annualized revenue projects a short period of sales over a full year.

Multiplied by four, Anthropic's third quarter works out to about $67 billion a year, by this site's arithmetic. That is an average for the quarter, not an end of quarter snapshot, and Anthropic counts the full value of sales through cloud partners while OpenAI counts only its own share for some partner deals, according to Axios. The background is in the report on OpenAI's $50 billion run rate.

Anthropic's own last public figure was a run rate above $47 billion in early May 2026, which it gave on May 28, 2026 when it announced $65 billion in Series H funding at a $965 billion post money valuation.

When is the IPO?

Anthropic has not set a public date: it filed confidentially with the US Securities and Exchange Commission earlier in 2026 and has not made its S-1 financials public, CNBC reported on October 13. Reuters reported a November listing, but people familiar with the plans could not confirm a date to CNBC.

The Information reported that the IPO is planned for November, before Thanksgiving, according to The Decoder. Implicator.ai reported that marketing to investors could start as early as the week of November 9, with trading before Thanksgiving on November 26, and that plans remain fluid.

What we don't know yet

• Whether the audited figures in Anthropic's public S-1 will match what it told investors.
• Which costs the adjusted profit measure leaves out.
• Anthropic's run rate at the end of September and its outlook for the full year.
• How much the cutback on distillation will reduce fourth quarter revenue.
• The final IPO date, share price and valuation.