Anthropic's $900B Valuation Bid Makes More Sense Now — Q2 Revenue Expected to Reach $10.9B

Anthropic expects to generate £8.1 billion ($10.9 billion) in revenue during the second quarter of 2026, according to investor materials first obtained by The Wall Street Journal and independently verified by Bloomberg. The AI startup also told investors it anticipates an operating profit of roughly £417 million ($559 million) for the quarter — its first ever.

The profit figure accounts for model-training costs, but excludes stock-based compensation.

In Q1, Anthropic generated £3.6 billion ($4.8 billion). Revenue more than doubled in the space of three months.

Valuation Set to Overtake OpenAI

Anthropic is in discussions to raise fresh capital at a pre-money valuation above £671 billion ($900 billion). If the round closes at that level, it would surpass OpenAI's £636 billion ($852 billion) valuation from a March funding round. Anthropic's own most recent raise — a £22.4 billion ($30 billion) round in February — valued the company at £284 billion ($380 billion) post-money.

On an annualised basis, Q2's projected revenue puts Anthropic at a run rate of roughly £32.5 billion ($43.6 billion). That prices the company at about 20 times forward revenue. Earlier private rounds had implied multiples above 90 times.

According to The Journal, no major tech company, including Google, Facebook or Zoom, managed comparable quarter-over-quarter revenue acceleration before going public. Google's Q2 2004 revenue grew just 7% from the prior quarter. Facebook's Q1 2012 revenue actually fell 6%.

Claude Code Fuels the Surge

Much of the growth traces back to Claude Code, Anthropic's AI-powered coding assistant. The tool became generally available in May 2025. Within six months, it reached £746 million ($1 billion) in annualised revenue. By February 2026, that figure had crossed £1.9 billion ($2.5 billion).

Claude Code business subscriptions have grown fourfold since the start of the year. Enterprise clients now generate more than half of the tool's revenue, with customers including Netflix, Spotify, KPMG, Salesforce, and L'Oréal. Eight of the Fortune 10 use Anthropic's products. The company says more than 1,000 enterprise clients now spend over £746,000 ($1 million) a year on its platform, up from 500 in February.

Amodei told developers at a conference earlier this month that Anthropic had planned for 10x annual growth but saw 80x in Q1 2026, a pace he said had strained the company's computing capacity.

Three Private Giants Converge on Public Markets

The revenue disclosure arrived on the same day SpaceX filed its IPO prospectus ahead of a 12 June Nasdaq listing. OpenAI is separately preparing to confidentially file its own S-1, according to CNBC, targeting an autumn debut with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

The media outlet confirmed Anthropic's revenue projections on Wednesday and noted the company's No. 1 position on its 2026 Disruptor 50 list. Anthropic has also struck a compute deal with SpaceX, paying £933 million ($1.25 billion) per month through May 2029 for access to the Colossus data centre in Memphis. Amazon has committed up to £18.7 billion ($25 billion) in investment. Google has pledged up to £29.8 billion ($40 billion).

Profitability May Not Last

The £417 million ($559 million) operating profit excludes stock-based compensation. For a company that has raised more than £29.8 billion ($40 billion) in private capital and hired aggressively, that expense could be large enough to erase the profit entirely.

As recently as last summer, Anthropic had signalled to investors that profitability was unlikely before 2028. Revenue growth pulled the timeline forward. But the spending commitments now on the books — including the SpaceX deal at £933 million ($1.25 billion) per month for three years — point to a sharply rising cost base. The Journal noted Anthropic may not remain profitable for the full year due to planned increases in compute and training costs. Computing costs for Q2 are projected at 56% of revenue, down 21% from the prior quarter.

In late 2024, Anthropic had roughly £746 million ($1 billion) in annualised revenue. It is now on pace to generate nearly £8.1 billion ($10.9 billion) in a single quarter. OpenAI, valued at £636 billion ($852 billion) in March, is targeting a potential £746 billion ($1 trillion) IPO later this year.