WASHINGTON: Artificial Intelligence company Anthropic’s revenue surged 1,127 per cent year-on-year to USD 17 billion in the September quarter, but higher costs of securing computing capacity pushed it back into an operating loss, highlighting the financial demands of scaling its AI business.
In its updated registration statement filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company reported an operating loss of USD 567 million for the three months ended September 30, compared with an operating income of USD 974 million in the preceding quarter.
Anthropic attributed the reversal primarily to USD 5 billion of computing capacity secured through short-term commitments, which it said was significantly more expensive than capacity procured under multi-year agreements. It also recorded USD 2 billion in non-cash charges related to its donation-matching programme.
The company said its computing needs had grown substantially, with customer demand exceeding the capacity available to it. “We have consistently operated in a compute-constrained environment where customer demand exceeds available compute,” the filing said.
ANTHROPIC Q3 2026 FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS:
– Revenue: $17.0B, +1,127% YoY & 47% QoQ
– Oper Loss: $567M (vs. $974M profit in Q2)
– Net Loss: $23.3B, vs. $12.1B YoY
– Adj. Oper Income: $2.5B
– Adj. Oper Margin: 15%, down from 19% in Q2
– 9M Revenue: $33.2BAnthropic attributed its return to an operating loss partly to $5B in higher-cost short-term compute and a $2B noncash donation-matching charge.
Its nine-month net loss reached $104B, largely reflecting $94.3B in noncash charges from the rising value of its convertible notes.
Anthropic also disclosed approximately $895.4B in aggregate purchase and lease commitments as of and after Sept. 30, largely tied to AI compute infrastructure.
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Computing and infrastructure expenses rose 382 per cent year-on-year to USD 9.9 billion in the September quarter, compared with the 1,127 per cent growth in revenue. The company said these figures reflected improvements in the amount of revenue generated for every dollar invested in computing.
Despite the quarterly operating loss, adjusted operating income increased to USD 2.5 billion from USD 2.2 billion in the June quarter. However, adjusted operating margin declined to 15 per cent from 19 per cent.
For the first nine months of 2026, revenue rose to USD 33.2 billion from USD 2.5 billion a year earlier, while operating loss narrowed to USD 1.3 billion from USD 5.2 billion.
Anthropic’s net loss for the September quarter stood at USD 23.3 billion. For the nine-month period, it reported a net loss of USD 104 billion, largely reflecting a USD 94.3 billion non-cash charge arising from changes in the fair value of convertible notes and other financial instruments, primarily due to an increase in the company’s valuation.
The filing also disclosed aggregate computing and infrastructure purchase and lease commitments of around USD 895.4 billion. Of this, approximately USD 447.5 billion is expected to be incurred before December 2030.
Anthropic said it expects operating margins to fluctuate as additional computing capacity becomes available and related expenses are recognised. “We expect our use of short-term compute to continue to increase in the near term,” it said, indicating that higher infrastructure costs could remain a pressure on margins.
The filing forms part of Anthropic’s proposed initial public offering (IPO), through which the company plans to offer shares of its Class A common stock to the public, alongside additional shares being sold by existing shareholders.
The company has applied to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the proposed ticker symbol “ANT”. The filing states that there was no public market for the shares before the offering and that the sale is expected to begin as soon as practicable after the registration statement becomes effective. (ANI)
