Anthropic has told shareholders it expects positive adjusted operating income for a second consecutive quarter, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing several people with knowledge of the matter; CNBC confirmed the same on Monday, citing two people familiar with the situation. The company also reported gross margins above 80%. The figures matter because they precede a listing widely expected as soon as October, and they show a loss-making lab moving toward the profitability profile public-market investors usually demand.
What the numbers cover
The two metrics are measured before some of Anthropic's largest costs. Adjusted operating profit strips out certain items that Bloomberg described as exceptional or one-time. The margin figure is calculated before the revenue Anthropic shares with distribution partners, including Amazon, and before the cost of training its models. Anthropic has not published full accounts, so the numbers reach the market through shareholders and press reports rather than audited statements. The company filed its IPO prospectus confidentially in June and must make its financials public at least 15 days before its investor roadshow begins, according to Business Insider.
The current quarter follows a strong second quarter. Last month, Anthropic's quarterly revenue passed $11.5bn with positive adjusted operating income, and its annualised revenue reached $65bn in July, roughly seven times the level of a year earlier, according to CNBC. For the listing, Anthropic has chosen Nasdaq and aims to match or beat SpaceX's record $86.3bn offering, Bloomberg reported. The company is also finalising a $15bn revolving credit facility, according to Bloomberg. Together these elements describe a company preparing both an equity sale and a large credit line at the same time.
The profit disclosure arrived during a week of AI safety warnings. On Saturday, chief executive Dario Amodei called on the industry to slow down; OpenAI's Sam Altman agreed and said his company would not go public this year. Anthropic is still likely to list in 2026, multiple sources told Axios's Dan Primack, who also noted a cynical argument that slowing development could cut Anthropic's compute spending and improve its financials. Matt Murphy, a partner at Menlo Ventures, which has invested in Anthropic, called its growth rate off the charts and told CNBC he sees no reason to wait. Others are sceptical of the slowdown plan: Gil Luria, an analyst at D. A. Davidson, told CNBC he is highly suspicious of what Anthropic and OpenAI are doing and said it feels more and more like a ladder pull.
What this means for business
For companies that buy AI models, the practical signal is that a major vendor is moving toward public-market discipline. A listed Anthropic must report revenue, margins and costs on a schedule, which gives procurement teams a firmer basis for multi-year contracts than private assurances. The $15bn revolving credit facility points to capacity for compute and expansion rather than a shortage of capital. Smaller firms will notice the difference mainly in contracting: they can expect clearer published terms and pricing, while large enterprises gain a counterparty whose finances are visible to their own auditors and boards.
What the news does not mean is that Anthropic is profitable on a full-cost basis. The adjusted measure excludes exceptional or one-time items, and the margin figure excludes both model training and payments to distribution partners such as Amazon, so neither number shows the cost of building and running frontier models. Buyers should ask vendors which costs sit outside a reported margin, how partner revenue sharing affects the price they pay, and whether capacity commitments depend on the credit facility. Gartner analyst Arun Chandrasekaran told CNBC that stricter safety standards could favour the two largest labs if smaller rivals cannot afford the costs, while Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management expects little to change, saying AI's long-term opportunity is too big for them to slow down.
The marker to watch is the public filing: Anthropic must release its financials at least 15 days before the investor roadshow, which will show whether the adjusted profit and the 80%-plus margin hold once training costs and partner payments are included. If the disclosed figures stay close to the reported ones, the IPO becomes a reference point for how AI labs are valued and for the contract terms business buyers can negotiate. If the gap is wide, procurement teams get a reason to keep shorter contract cycles and to test more than one model supplier.
