Anthropic logged net loss of over US$80 billion in first half of 2026: Report

Anthropic reported a net loss of more than US$80 billion (S$102 billion) in the first half of 2026. It also said it could spend as much as US$750 billion in the coming years to get more computing power, the Wall Street Journal reported on Oct 20.

The loss was much larger than the US$13 billion loss a year earlier. According to the report, US$72 billion of the loss came from accounting charges linked to changes in the value of financial instruments that Anthropic had issued to raise money. The report cited a draft document prepared for the company's planned initial public offering (IPO).

The figures show how expensive the race to develop AI has become. Investors are paying closer attention to whether the large amounts of money companies spend on computer chips and data centres will bring in enough returns.

Anthropic's revenue rose to US$16.3 billion in the six months ending June 30, up from US$1.1 billion in the same period a year earlier. Its spending on AI infrastructure nearly quadrupled to almost US$9 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.

Investors question Anthropic's IPO value

Reuters first reported in September that Anthropic had a net loss of US$42 billion in 2025. This was part of a series of exclusive reports based on documents prepared for its planned IPO.

Anthropic has benefited from the popularity of Claude Code, its tool that helps software developers write code and build apps.

However, some current investors and people considering investing in the company are thinking about valuing Anthropic at a lower amount. This followed the company's latest financial disclosures. Four people familiar with the matter told Reuters that these investors had attended Anthropic's investor day the previous week.

Three of those people said investors at the event in San Francisco discussed a value of around US$1.5 trillion for the company. This is much lower than the roughly US$2 trillion value previously expected for its planned share sale in November.

Anthropic told investors at the meeting that its revenue in the third quarter rose 45% to US$16.8 billion from the previous quarter. It also said it made a profit during the quarter when calculated using adjusted figures, which exclude certain costs.

If investors respond less positively to Anthropic's IPO, it could affect the wider AI market. Investors see the market's near-term outlook as depending largely on whether the share sale succeeds. This comes before rival OpenAI may go public next year. REUTERS