Anthropic recorded a net loss of $80.7 billion in the first half of 2026, according to a draft prospectus for its planned initial public offering, The Wall Street Journal first reported on Tuesday, October 20. Reuters, which said it also reviewed the draft, reported that the loss compares with $13 billion a year earlier.
Most of that is not cash. A $72 billion accounting charge reflected a rise in the estimated value of bonds that could eventually convert into Anthropic shares, rather than costs tied to operations, the document said, according to Reuters. As Anthropic’s valuation has climbed, so has the value of those notes. Excluding a similar charge, Anthropic posted an operating loss of about $8.1 billion on $4.6 billion of revenue in 2025, Reuters reported.
The cash costs are rising fast too. Anthropic spent nearly $9 billion on computing capacity and infrastructure in the first half, up from $2.3 billion a year earlier, the draft showed, according to Reuters. The company has committed to spending at least $518 billion over a decade on cloud services, computing and infrastructure. First-half revenue was $16.3 billion, the Journal reported, according to Yahoo Finance.
Investors are reassessing the price. Some existing and prospective investors have weighed a valuation of around $1.5 trillion, below the roughly $2 trillion previously expected, Reuters reported last week, after the company told investors its third-quarter revenue rose 45% to $16.8 billion. Anthropic could file its S-1 publicly as soon as Friday, October 23, three people familiar with its plans told Yahoo Finance, a step toward a possible November listing. Anthropic did not respond to Reuters’ or Yahoo Finance’s requests for comment.
Ahead of the filing, Anthropic said on Sunday, October 18, that it plans to commit 5% of its shares to a new Public Benefit Fund, subject to stockholder approval, with the board able to add 2 percentage points for each 50% rise in the company’s value above an undisclosed baseline, CNBC reported. Anthropic said the fund could back nonprofit donations, direct distributions or programs addressing AI’s impact on workers, and its equity will not be used for lobbying or political giving.
Sources
- The Wall Street Journal (Anissa Gardizy): Anthropic Draft IPO Filing Shows Red-Hot Growth, Many Risks and Massive Computing Costs (October 20, 2026; paywalled, credited, not quoted)
- Reuters (Echo Wang and others) via KSL: Anthropic logged net loss of over $80 billion in first half of 2026 (October 20, 2026)
- Reuters via Investing.com: Anthropic recorded net loss of over $80 billion in first half of this year, WSJ reports (October 20, 2026)
- Yahoo Finance (David Hollerith, Daniel Howley): Anthropic to publicly file for IPO as early as Friday, sources say (October 21, 2026)
- CNBC (Jennifer Liu): Anthropic commits 5% of shares to new public benefit fund (October 18, 2026)