Anthropic Revenue Tops OpenAI, Fuels IPO Hype

Anthropic PBC (P-ANTH) revenue has surged, with investor updates showing the company surpassed OpenAI (P-OPEA) in quarterly sales. This shift has accelerated IPO speculation and intensified debate over whether leading AI models can quickly achieve profitability.

Q2 Revenue Growth and Run Rate Comparison

Anthropic, a privately held artificial intelligence company known for its Claude family of large language models, focuses on enterprise customers and safety-oriented research. The company told investors its annualized revenue run rate reached about $65 billion at the end of July 2026. This figure, an extrapolation from recent results rather than an audited full-year total, marks more than a sevenfold increase from roughly $9 billion at the end of 2025 and a rise from about $47 billion in May 2026.

Preliminary second-quarter 2026 revenue at Anthropic was reported around $11.5–11.6 billion, a more than 14-fold year-over-year increase and over double first-quarter sales of roughly $4.7–4.8 billion. This implies sequential growth exceeding 140%. Multiple accounts say Anthropic swung to a small operating profit or positive adjusted operating income in the quarter, partly due to improved computing-resource efficiency. The company’s use of an adjusted profitability measure, including the treatment of stock-based compensation, has not been fully disclosed.

OpenAI reported second-quarter revenue of $6.7 billion, up 18% from $5.7 billion in the first quarter, with an annualized run rate near $40 billion. However, multiple sources say OpenAI’s losses deepened, with one detailed account citing an operating loss including stock-based compensation of about $12.3 billion in Q2, up from roughly $9.3 billion in Q1. This pushed operating margins further into negative territory.

Anthropic’s second-quarter sales exceeded OpenAI’s for the first time, shifting investor focus to whether monetizing higher-quality models can outpace the scale-and-loss business model.

IPO Valuation and Profitability Debate

Reports describe Anthropic as on track for an initial public offering later in 2026, though no S-1 registration statement has been filed. Secondary analyses have suggested an implied IPO valuation near $2 trillion, roughly a 31-times multiple on the run-rate figure. Some investor projections anticipate full-year 2026 revenue between $100 billion and $120 billion, though these estimates are analytical rather than company guidance.

Anthropic’s move toward adjusted operating profitability challenges the expectation that leading AI models must remain large, loss-making platforms. In contrast, OpenAI’s slower sequential growth and widening losses have disappointed some investors and intensified scrutiny ahead of its own anticipated listing.

Underwriters, investors, and executives will be watching whether Anthropic can sustain the revenue momentum behind its lofty valuation and whether OpenAI can narrow losses or clarify a path to profitability before going public.