A Sneak Peek Into Anthropic’s Business
Oct 21, 2026 · 16 min · 9 segments
Anthropic is preparing for what could be one of the biggest IPOs in history. WSJ's…
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Oct 21, 2026 · 16 min · 9 segments
Anthropic is preparing for what could be one of the biggest IPOs in history. WSJ's…
Anissa GardizyGuest
Ryan KnutsonHost
[upbeat music] So let's talk about the financial picture that the S1 painted, and let's start with revenue.
What can we see about where this company is making money, and how much is it making?
So Anthropic makes money primarily from selling access to its sophisticated AI models, and what we saw in the draft S1 was that in the first half of 2026, they brought in around $16 billion in revenue.
And that's compared with about a billion dollars in the same period last year.
And the company separately, outside of this draft S1, has indicated that revenue for the third quarter of 2026 is around $16 billion.
Yeah, they're, they're on pace for crazy revenue growth this year, and that is the main reason that people are excited about the company.
What were you able to learn about who Anthropic's customers are? Who's actually paying them this money?
Anthropic said 20% of its revenue in the first half of the year came from two customers.
And they said that for the foreseeable future, they expect just a handful of customers to make up the most of their revenue.
That to me was quite shocking, and investors are gonna focus on that disclosure.
Anthropic didn't disclose the names of the companies, so it's up to us to guess or to figure out.
[laughs] Why is so much of Anthropic's revenue coming from only a few customers?
Well, if you think about just the revenue that they're reporting, how big these numbers are, there aren't that many companies that can help them get to $16 billion in revenue.
The big question in AI circles right now is, will big companies pay? Will consumers pay? And so there's a chance, you know, we don't know, that there are only a few types of large companies that feel like spending billions of dollars on Anthropic tools makes sense for their business.
Not only is Anthropic reliant on a handful of massive customers, those customers can switch to a rival AI company at any time.
And so that will be something that maybe gives people pause because a- as we see in the AI market in general, when a new model comes out, everyone gets really excited about it and switches [laughs] up which model they use.
[upbeat music] So let's talk about the financial picture that the S1 painted, and let's start with revenue.
What can we see about where this company is making money, and how much is it making?
So Anthropic makes money primarily from selling access to its sophisticated AI models, and what we saw in the draft S1 was that in the first half of 2026, they brought in around $16 billion in revenue.
And that's compared with about a billion dollars in the same period last year.
And the company separately, outside of this draft S1, has indicated that revenue for the third quarter of 2026 is around $16 billion.
Yeah, they're, they're on pace for crazy revenue growth this year, and that is the main reason that people are excited about the company.
What were you able to learn about who Anthropic's customers are? Who's actually paying them this money?
Anthropic said 20% of its revenue in the first half of the year came from two customers.
And they said that for the foreseeable future, they expect just a handful of customers to make up the most of their revenue.
That to me was quite shocking, and investors are gonna focus on that disclosure.
Anthropic didn't disclose the names of the companies, so it's up to us to guess or to figure out.
[laughs] Why is so much of Anthropic's revenue coming from only a few customers?
Well, if you think about just the revenue that they're reporting, how big these numbers are, there aren't that many companies that can help them get to $16 billion in revenue.
The big question in AI circles right now is, will big companies pay? Will consumers pay? And so there's a chance, you know, we don't know, that there are only a few types of large companies that feel like spending billions of dollars on Anthropic tools makes sense for their business.
Not only is Anthropic reliant on a handful of massive customers, those customers can switch to a rival AI company at any time.
And so that will be something that maybe gives people pause because a- as we see in the AI market in general, when a new model comes out, everyone gets really excited about it and switches [laughs] up which model they use.
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