Claude developer increases revenue, but business growth slows
American company Anthropic, the developer of artificial intelligence Claude, informed potential investors of significant growth in financial metrics in the third quarter of 2026. The company's revenue reached $16.8 billion, but its growth rate noticeably slowed compared to the previous quarter.
This was reported by Bloomberg and The Information, citing participants in a closed meeting with investors held on October 14 in San Francisco.
In the third quarter, Anthropic's revenue grew by approximately 45% - from $11.6 billion to $16.8 billion. For comparison, in the second quarter its growth exceeded 140%. Thus, despite significant revenue increase, the company began to show signs of slowing business expansion.
At the same time, Anthropic reported to investors that it achieved profitability on adjusted metrics for the second consecutive quarter. According to Bloomberg, the company also generates positive free cash flow, and its adjusted gross margin reached 85%.
Adjusted operating margin after nine months exceeded 11%. However, these metrics do not account for all accounting expenses, including stock-based compensation to employees, so it does not mean Anthropic has become profitable under standard financial reporting rules.
The main source of growth remains demand for Claude products, primarily the Claude Code tool for programming and enterprise artificial intelligence services.
However, slowdown in revenue growth may affect investor expectations ahead of Anthropic's planned IPO. The company expects an extremely high market valuation, which will now need to be justified not only by revenue scale but also by its ability to sustain growth.
An additional risk factor remains competition with OpenAI and other AI developers, as well as significant spending on computing infrastructure. Anthropic previously reported long-term commitments for cloud services and computing resources totaling over $500 billion.
Parameters of the future IPO are not yet fully determined. Anthropic may begin active promotion of the offering among investors as early as November, but timing depends on market conditions.
Source: Bloomberg, The Information, Курс України