Anthropic Lost $80.7 Billion in Six Months, or $693 Million, or Made $1.6 Billion

Anthropic, PBC filed its registration statement for an initial public offering with the SEC on 26 October. The prospectus is long, and the coverage has settled on its growth figure: revenue “grew 1,368% year over year for the three months ended June 30, 2026, compared to our compute and infrastructure expenses that grew 300%.”

The filing also contains three different answers to the question of whether the company made money in the first half of 2026. All three are correct, and they differ by more than $80 billion.

Three numbers for the same six months

For the six months ended 30 June 2026, revenue was $16.29 billion, up from $1.16 billion a year earlier. Against that, the summary financial table reports:

The net loss is the one that will look strangest in a headline, and the filing explains it in the risk factors. The losses “included change in fair value of convertible notes, derivative liabilities, and SAFEs of” $72.4 billion for the half, “primarily driven by an increase in the fair value of our outstanding convertible promissory notes resulting from an increase in our enterprise valuation.” The more investors think Anthropic is worth, the more it owes on paper to holders of notes that convert into its shares, and that increase runs through the income statement as a loss. No cash leaves the company.

What the $80.7 billion net loss is made of, first half of 2026 A single bar of 80.75 billion dollars split into two parts: 72.39 billion from the change in fair value of convertible notes, derivative liabilities and SAFEs, and 8.36 billion of everything else, which includes the 0.69 billion operating loss. NET LOSS, SIX MONTHS TO 30 JUNE 2026 · $ BILLIONS · ANTHROPIC S-1 $72.39B change in fair value of convertible notes, derivative liabilities and SAFEs — S-1, 26 Oct 2026 $8.36B everything else (author's subtraction) — S-1 $72.39B revaluation of convertible notes, derivatives and SAFEs $8.36B everything else, including the $0.69B operating loss Net loss: $80.75B "Everything else" is my subtraction of the two reported lines, not a figure the filing states.
About nine-tenths of the net loss is a paper revaluation that grows when the company's valuation grows. It says more about the price of the notes than about the business.

From operating loss to adjusted profit

The operating loss, $693 million, is the GAAP measure of the business itself. The company’s preferred measure goes further. “We define Adjusted Operating Income (Loss) as operating loss excluding (i) stock-based compensation expense, (ii) non-cash charitable contributions, and (iii) the Bartz settlement.” For the first half of 2026 the reconciliation is short: the $693 million loss, plus $2,185 million of stock-based compensation, plus $126 million of non-cash charitable contributions, comes to $1,618 million of Adjusted Operating Income.

From GAAP operating loss to Adjusted Operating Income, first half of 2026 A bridge chart in millions of dollars. Start at an operating loss of 693 million. Add back 2,185 million of stock-based compensation, which takes the total to 1,492 million. Add back 126 million of non-cash charitable contributions. End at Adjusted Operating Income of 1,618 million. RECONCILIATION · SIX MONTHS TO 30 JUNE 2026 · $ MILLIONS · ANTHROPIC S-1 $0 Operating loss −$693M — S-1 +$2,185M stock-based compensation — S-1 +$126M non-cash charitable contributions — S-1 Adjusted Operating Income $1,618M — S-1 −693 +2,185 +126 1,618 Operating loss Stock-based comp Charitable, non-cash Adjusted op. income
Stock-based compensation alone turns a $693 million operating loss into an adjusted profit. The 2025 bridge also removed a $1.5 billion legal settlement.

Stock-based compensation is a real cost. It is paid in shares rather than cash, so it does not drain the bank account, but it dilutes every other shareholder, and the filing’s own numbers show it growing fast: $192 million in 2024, $1,165 million in 2025 and $2,185 million in the first half of 2026 alone. A measure that excludes it describes the business as if its employees were free.

None of this is unusual for an IPO filing. A 2020 study in the Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance looked at 300 IPO firms from 2009 to 2013 and found that 60% disclosed non-GAAP measures in their registration filings, and that “the vast majority of the reported NGMs are greater than the firms’ GAAP earnings.” Anthropic’s is one more, and the SEC requires the reconciliation that makes it easy to undo.

The number they all agree on

What the three bottom lines share is revenue, and the revenue story is the one the filing is strongest on. Revenue went from $41 million in 2023 to $386 million in 2024, $4.59 billion in 2025 and $16.29 billion in the first half of 2026. Over the same time the operating margin went from −1,344% to −4%.

It also shows where the money comes from. “Revenue generated from sales to customers through CSP marketplaces,” meaning customers who buy Claude through a cloud provider’s marketplace (the filing names AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure as the major cloud platforms that offer its models), rose from about 11% of revenue in 2023 to 48% in the first half of 2026. Those platforms “bill end customers, collect payments on our behalf, and remit such amounts to us, net of applicable platform and other fees.”

Revenue and the share sold through cloud marketplaces Four periods. Revenue: 41 million dollars in 2023, 386 million in 2024, 4,585 million in 2025, and 16,286 million in the first half of 2026. Share of revenue from sales through cloud service provider marketplaces: about 11 percent, 32 percent, 47 percent and 48 percent. SHARE OF REVENUE SOLD THROUGH CLOUD MARKETPLACES · ANTHROPIC S-1 Period Revenue Share sold through cloud providers' marketplaces 2023 2024 2025 H1 2026 $41M $386M $4,585M $16,286M About 11% — S-1 About 32% — S-1 About 47% — S-1 About 48% — S-1 11% 32% 47% 48% H1 2026 is six months, the others are full years. Revenue in $ millions.
Nearly half of Anthropic's revenue now arrives through cloud marketplaces, which bill the customer and pass on the money net of their fees.

Reading the prospectus

I think the useful way to read this filing is to pick the number for the question being asked. Is the company growing? Revenue, and the answer is yes, very fast. Does the business cover its costs? The GAAP operating loss, and the answer is not quite, by $693 million in six months. Is it worth what the notes say? That is the $72.4 billion, and it is a question about the valuation, not the business. The $1.6 billion adjusted profit answers a fourth question, how the company looks if share-based pay is set aside, and it is the one least worth leading with.

References

  1. Anthropic, PBC (2026). Form S-1 Registration Statement. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, filed 26 October 2026. Summary Consolidated Financial and Other Data, Risk Factors, and Non-GAAP Financial Measures.
  2. Liu, B. & Zhang, D. (2020). The use of non-GAAP measures in initial public offerings. Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance 31(4), 60–72.