Anthropic Posts $114 Billion Half-Year Loss as IPO Valuation Slips

Anthropic reported a net loss of more than US$80 billion (A$114 billion) for the first half of the year and signalled it could spend as much as US$750 billion (A$1.1 trillion) in the coming years to secure more computing capacity, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing a draft prospectus for the company's IPO.

The loss is a sharp escalation from US$13 billion (A$19 billion) a year earlier. US$72 billion (A$103 billion) of it came from accounting charges tied to changes in the value of financial instruments Anthropic issued to raise money, according to the Journal's report.

What do the numbers say about the AI race?

The figures lay bare the cost of competing in artificial intelligence, even as investors scrutinise whether the money pouring into chips and data centres will actually pay off.

Anthropic's revenue jumped to US$16.3 billion (A$23.3 billion) in the six months ended June 30, up from US$1.1 billion (A$1.6 billion) a year ago. AI infrastructure spending nearly quadrupled over the same period, reaching almost US$9 billion (A$13 billion), the Journal said.

Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment, and Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Reuters reported first in September that Anthropic posted a net loss of US$42 billion (A$60 billion) for full-year 2025, drawing on a series of exclusives from its IPO prospectus.

Where does the revenue come from?

The company has benefited from the popularity of Claude Code, its coding assistant. Developers use the tool to write software and build apps, and it has become a key driver of Anthropic's top-line growth.

Why is the valuation under pressure?

Some current and prospective investors who attended Anthropic's investor day in San Francisco last week are weighing a lower valuation for the company after its latest financial disclosures, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Investors at the event discussed a valuation of around US$1.5 trillion (A$2.1 trillion), three of those people said. That marks a significant step down from the roughly US$2 trillion (A$2.9 trillion) valuation previously expected for the November share sale.

Not all the news at the investor day was grim. Anthropic told attendees that third-quarter revenue jumped 45% to US$16.8 billion (A$24 billion) from the previous quarter. It also said it was profitable on an adjusted basis during the quarter.

What hangs on the November share sale?

A cooler reception for Anthropic's IPO could weigh on the wider AI market. Investors see the sector's near-term prospects as hinging largely on the success of the share sale, which comes ahead of rival OpenAI's potential listing next year.

The gap between the discussed US$1.5 trillion valuation and the roughly US$2 trillion previously expected will frame how markets price AI infrastructure risk going into the listing.