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# Anthropic's draft IPO prospectus shows an $80.7bn half-year loss, WSJ reports
- URL: https://theainewsfiles.com/anthropic-draft-ipo-prospectus-80-7bn-loss-compute/
- Published: 2026-10-21T18:42:48.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-21T18:42:48.000Z
- Description: A draft prospectus viewed by the Wall Street Journal reportedly shows an $80.7bn first-half loss and possible compute spending of $750bn. Who reported what, and what is still a claim.
- Author: J E Cowie
- Tags: News

Anthropic's IPO paperwork has not been publicly disclosed, Reuters reported in September, so what is known about it comes from reporters who have seen it. The Wall Street Journal's Anissa Gardizy reported on a new draft prospectus the paper had viewed. According to the Journal, the document discloses an $80.7 billion net loss for the first half of 2026 and a long list of risk factors. The Journal also reported that the company has signalled it could potentially spend $750 billion in the coming years on more computing capacity, including deals it is still negotiating.

Everything below is reporting on a filing, not the filing itself. Where a figure is Anthropic's own statement about its business, it is described that way. Anthropic did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment on the latest reporting.

## What the latest reporting says

TechCrunch's Rebecca Bellan, writing on 20 October and relaying the Journal's report, adds several figures. Anthropic reported $16.3 billion in revenue over the same half-year period, with only two customers accounting for about a fifth of sales. The Journal's own summary points to a narrow customer base and uncertain access to computing power among the risks.

TechCrunch, citing the filing as leaked to the Journal, says Anthropic is having trouble securing enough cloud capacity from AWS, Google and Microsoft. It says those companies increasingly see the Claude maker as a competitor rather than a customer. Anthropic is leasing its own data centres and working with third-party operators, TechCrunch reports, but the company worries that those operators have a "limited operating history", which TechCrunch says could make them less reliable than the big cloud providers.

TechCrunch also reported that the filing warns Anthropic could face liability for damages caused by harmful AI behaviour that would exceed its available insurance coverage.

On revenue since then, TechCrunch says the company told prospective investors in the week before TechCrunch's 20 October report that third-quarter revenue alone has reached $16.8 billion, up 45% from the previous quarter. It adds that Anthropic is reportedly targeting a November IPO.

## What Reuters reported in September

Reuters had already reported on a confidential version of the filing. On 29 September it said Anthropic had filed confidentially with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in June. Reuters reported that Anthropic is seeking a valuation of about $2 trillion.

Reuters' figures from that filing include:

- **Distribution:** About $2.16 billion of Anthropic's 2025 revenue, or 47%, was sold through cloud marketplaces run by Amazon and Google. Reuters notes both companies are also investors, suppliers of computing power and direct rivals in AI.
- **Customers:** Two unnamed customers each accounted for 12% of 2025 revenue, Reuters said. Anthropic cautioned that many of its largest customers have no long-term contracts and could cut back or stop spending.
- **Growth:** Revenue rose 12-fold in 2025 to nearly $4.6 billion, while operating losses more than doubled to top $8 billion, Reuters said.

In a second report the same day, Reuters said Anthropic expects to spend at least $518 billion over a decade building AI infrastructure with six partners. About 80% of that, the prospectus says, is non-cancellable or must be paid regardless of usage. The named commitments include at least $111.1 billion with Google, $110 billion with Amazon and $31.4 billion with Microsoft. Separately, Anthropic carries about $161.2 billion of Broadcom-related equipment lease obligations that are largely non-cancellable, Reuters said.

The $518 billion and the Journal's $750 billion are separate reported figures.

The filing acknowledges the tension in those partnerships, according to Reuters. Anthropic said the three cloud companies occupy several roles at once as investors, customers, cloud providers, distributors and competitors, creating incentives that "may not be fully aligned" with its own. It also wrote that if the computing it can reach from third parties is "curtailed, repriced, or terminated", its business and results could be adversely affected. Reuters says the company described itself as increasingly building its own infrastructure, moving from a cloud-only model to dedicated data centres and directly leased chips.

One accounting dispute sits in the background. According to Reuters, Anthropic counts the whole value of sales made through cloud marketplaces as its own revenue and treats the share the platforms keep as a marketing expense. Reuters reported in June that OpenAI has told investors and employees this inflates Anthropic's reported revenue by billions of dollars. Anthropic told Reuters then that it follows established accounting practices and recognises gross revenue because it is the "principal" in the transaction.

## The Nscale deals

Compute supply is also the thread running through Anthropic's deals with the British infrastructure company Nscale. On 26 August, TechCrunch reported, citing a source familiar with the deal, that Anthropic had signed to rent about $45 billion of compute from Nscale. Bloomberg first reported it. Bloomberg, as relayed by TechCrunch, said the deal spans six years, with capacity coming from Nscale's flagship data centre in West Virginia; TechCrunch said the compute will run on Nvidia's Vera Rubin chips. The source said that capacity is expected to start powering Anthropic's services in late 2027.

That was one of several compute deals TechCrunch listed in the same article, including a $10 billion agreement with Volta, a $5 billion compute-related deal with AMD and an expanded Amazon partnership.

On 19 October, TechCrunch relayed a Bloomberg report that the two companies are said to be on the verge of announcing another $45 billion compute deal. Bloomberg's sources, according to TechCrunch, cautioned that talks are still underway and that details could change. That deal is reported as talks, not as signed.

Both companies are also pursuing IPOs. Bloomberg reported on 19 October, TechCrunch said, that Nscale is facing investor pushback over its proposed $30 billion valuation.

## Reading it

The Journal's own headline phrase is "red-hot growth", and the reported numbers do show fast revenue growth beside very large losses and commitments. My own view is that the filing, as reported, makes compute supply the central risk. It sits next to a dependence on three companies that Anthropic itself describes as partners and competitors at once. The document is still a draft, and the figures here remain the reporters' and the company's claims until a public filing lets anyone check them directly.

## Sources

Gardizy, A. (2026) 'Anthropic S-1 Shows Red-Hot Growth, Risks and Massive Computing Costs', The Wall Street Journal, 20 October 2026, available at: [https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-revenue-growth-ipo-accaf0f1](https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-revenue-growth-ipo-accaf0f1?ref=theainewsfiles.com) (Accessed: 21 October 2026).

Bellan, R. (2026) 'Anthropic's cloud partnerships are getting messy', TechCrunch, 20 October 2026, available at: [https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/20/anthropics-cloud-partnerships-are-getting-messy/](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/20/anthropics-cloud-partnerships-are-getting-messy/?ref=theainewsfiles.com) (Accessed: 21 October 2026).

Ropek, L. (2026) 'Anthropic continues compute-gobbling streak in $45B deal with Nscale', TechCrunch, 26 August 2026, available at: [https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/26/anthropic-continues-compute-gobbling-streak-in-45-billion-deal-with-nscale/](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/26/anthropic-continues-compute-gobbling-streak-in-45-billion-deal-with-nscale/?ref=theainewsfiles.com) (Accessed: 21 October 2026).

Ropek, L. (2026) 'Nscale and Anthropic are reportedly in talks for yet another $45B compute deal', TechCrunch, 19 October 2026, available at: [https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/19/nscale-and-anthropic-are-reportedly-in-talks-for-yet-another-45-billion-compute-deal/](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/19/nscale-and-anthropic-are-reportedly-in-talks-for-yet-another-45-billion-compute-deal/?ref=theainewsfiles.com) (Accessed: 21 October 2026).

Wang, E. and Hu, K. (2026) 'Exclusive: Anthropic IPO prospectus lays bare deep dependence on Big Tech partners', Reuters, 29 September 2026, available at: [https://www.reuters.com/world/anthropic-ipo-prospectus-lays-bare-deep-dependence-big-tech-partners-2026-09-29/](https://www.reuters.com/world/anthropic-ipo-prospectus-lays-bare-deep-dependence-big-tech-partners-2026-09-29/?ref=theainewsfiles.com) (Accessed: 21 October 2026).

Wang, E. and Valle, S. (2026) 'Anthropic's $518 billion AI buildout hinges largely on deals that cannot be canceled, filing shows', Reuters, 29 September 2026, available at: [https://www.reuters.com/business/anthropics-518-billion-ai-buildout-hinges-largely-deals-that-cannot-be-canceled-2026-09-29/](https://www.reuters.com/business/anthropics-518-billion-ai-buildout-hinges-largely-deals-that-cannot-be-canceled-2026-09-29/?ref=theainewsfiles.com) (Accessed: 21 October 2026).

## Picture credits

- Top picture: Dario Amodei, Anthropic's chief executive. Dario Amodei, photo: UK Prime Minister ([CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=theainewsfiles.com)), via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dario%5FAmodei%5Fin%5F2023.jpg?ref=theainewsfiles.com)