By Hamza Faisal
Anthropic's annualized revenue run rate topped $80 billion at the end of October, according to The Wall Street Journal, a milestone that puts the Claude maker's growth well ahead of market expectations — even as the same investors now question the price of its upcoming stock market debut.
The run rate stood at roughly $65 billion at the end of July, so Anthropic added about $15 billion in annualized revenue in three months. Independent tracker TickerTrends put the figure slightly higher, at $82.33 billion as of October 30, up 7.2 percent from its September 24 reading. Market expectations had generally centred on about $70 billion, so the reported number beat consensus by a wide margin.
The Journal also reported that Anthropic held $146.6 billion in cash as of September 30, and that annualized reported revenue sits at about $81 billion.
A filing that explains the surge
The revenue figures line up with Anthropic's public stock market filing. Its S-1 registration statement, made public on October 26, showed revenue of $16.3 billion for the first half of 2026, up from $1.16 billion in the same period a year earlier — a fourteen-fold jump. Revenue for the third quarter is reported at between $16.8 billion and $17 billion.
The filing also showed Anthropic's first operating profit, of $974 million in the second quarter of 2026. Its headline net loss of $80.7 billion for the first half was driven largely by non-cash charges tied to convertible notes, not by the day-to-day business, which is now profitable at the operating level.
Anthropic filed to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT, and the company is aiming to go public before Thanksgiving, with a roadshow expected next week.
Investors want a lower price
The strong revenue numbers have not settled the argument over what Anthropic is worth. The company wants to raise $80 billion to $100 billion at a valuation of $1.25 trillion to $1.75 trillion, according to the Financial Times, but three major investors planning to buy into the offering told the Journal that the previously expected $1.5 trillion valuation is too high. One suggested it should come down to around $1 trillion.
The timing is awkward. The pushback follows a sharp sell-off in technology stocks, and reports say the offering may now shrink or be delayed while the company waits for its October financial results. Some investors want to see those figures before deciding whether to accept a lower valuation.
The debate also matters beyond Anthropic. OpenAI completed a first close of about $11 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation on November 6, and SoftBank's shares fell 10.8 percent on Friday as investors reassessed AI valuations. Anthropic's $80 billion run rate shows demand for its models is still accelerating — the question for its IPO is whether investors will pay a record price for it in a market that has just turned cautious.
What to watch next
The roadshow will be the test. If Anthropic holds its valuation, it would rank among the largest public offerings in history. If it accepts a cut toward $1 trillion, it would still be a landmark listing — but one that signals even the fastest-growing AI companies cannot ignore a nervous market. Either way, the October numbers have reset expectations for the AI business: Anthropic's revenue has gone from $41 million for all of 2023 to an $80 billion annual pace in under three years.
Anthropic's revenue figures were reported by The Wall Street Journal and corroborated by TickerTrends' independent tracking. The IPO plans were reported by the Financial Times and the Journal.
