Anthropic Told Investors Its Revenue Run Rate Reached $65 Billion
The confidential investor update suggests a rapid expansion ahead of a potential public listing, though a run rate is an extrapolation rather than booked full-year revenue.
Story brief
3 key pointsAnthropic’s investor update strengthens its IPO narrative, but the headline figure remains a forward-looking sales signal rather than audited revenue. The company reported a preliminary $11.5 billion second-quarter figure and said its annualized run rate reached $65 billion by late July, while offering little detail on calculation, mix, margins, or retention. Comparisons with OpenAI are imperfect because OpenAI...
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Anthropic’s run rate rose from $9 billion at year-end to above $47 billion in May and $65 billion in late July.
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The preliminary $11.5 billion second-quarter revenue figure was reportedly 14 times higher than a year earlier.
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OpenAI reported $6.7 billion in second-quarter revenue and a $40 billion annualized run rate; the metrics are not directly comparable.
Anthropic told investors its annualized revenue run rate reached $65 billion at the end of July, up sharply from the more than $47 billion it disclosed in May. The figure gives potential IPO investors a new growth marker, but it is a projection based on a shorter recent period—not reported full-year revenue.
CNBC confirmed the figure after Bloomberg first reported it. According to CNBC’s account, Anthropic shared the number with investors over the weekend and declined to comment. The company also shared a preliminary second-quarter revenue figure of $11.5 billion, according to people familiar with the confidential update.
CNBC’s sources said the preliminary second-quarter figure was a 14-fold increase from a year earlier. TechCrunch reported Anthropic was last valued at $965 billion in late May, when it raised $65 billion. The revenue update follows the financing round that set that private valuation.
A fast-moving marker, not a full-year result
The run-rate measure has moved quickly. Bloomberg reported that Anthropic was at $9 billion at the end of last year, while Anthropic said in May that it had topped $47 billion. Those figures point to accelerating momentum, but they do not disclose the revenue mix, customer retention, costs, or whether a recent period will represent the rest of the year.
The comparison investors will make
Investors are weighing Anthropic against OpenAI, its closest high-profile rival. OpenAI’s annualized revenue run rate recently reached $40 billion, CNBC reported. OpenAI also told investors that second-quarter revenue rose 18% sequentially, to $6.7 billion from $5.7 billion in the first quarter; its losses deepened and its operating margin became more negative, according to people familiar with the matter.
The numbers are directionally comparable as indicators of commercial scale, but the two companies may calculate their revenue metrics differently. Anthropic’s latest reported run rate therefore should not be read as a like-for-like quarterly revenue comparison with OpenAI’s $6.7 billion result.
What remains outside the update
- Anthropic has not publicly provided an official IPO timetable, although it confidentially filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June and has held preliminary meetings with potential investors.
- The $11.5 billion second-quarter number was described as preliminary, and the reported update did not detail the inputs behind its $65 billion run-rate calculation.
- The Financial Times reported that investors expect Anthropic to finish 2026 with annualized revenue between $100 billion and $120 billion. That is an expectation, not company guidance disclosed in the investor update.
Growth arrives amid policy friction
Anthropic is seeking to show that growth can withstand disruptions as it approaches public markets. In June, it temporarily disabled access to Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 to comply with an export-control directive, then restored the models after roughly two weeks. Earlier this year, the Pentagon blacklisted Anthropic after talks over military use of its models escalated.
For now, the $65 billion figure is a powerful private-market signal rather than a public financial filing. The next test is whether Anthropic turns the run-rate trajectory into disclosed, durable results as any IPO process advances.
Sources
- cnbc.comAnthropic tells investors annualized revenue run rate climbed to $65 billion in July
- techcrunch.comAnthropic's annualized revenue surges to $65B | TechCrunch
- wsj.comExclusive | OpenAI’s Second-Quarter Sales Show Tepid Growth Compared With Anthropic
