Anthropic’s $80 billion loss explained: Why its AI business still faces a big test
Most of Anthropic’s reported loss in the first half of the year came from accounting charges linked to the financial tools it used to raise money. But rising computing costs and long-term spending commitments remain major challenges for its AI business as it prepares for a possible stock market listing.
Anthropic reported a loss of more than $80 billion in the first half of 2026, but an important detail helps explain this huge number. Most of the loss came from accounting charges linked to changes in the estimated value of financial instruments the company issued to raise money. This means investors need to look at a different question: Can Anthropic's fast-growing AI business afford the computing power it needs?
The AI company reported a net loss of $80.7 billion for the six months ending June 30, compared with $13 billion in the same period a year earlier. These figures came from a draft document for its planned initial public offering (IPO), cited by The Wall Street Journal. About $72 billion of the loss came from accounting charges. These charges reflected an increase in the estimated value of bonds that could later be converted into Anthropic shares.
These accounting charges do not mean the company spent the same amount of cash running its business. However, they greatly affect its reported financial results as Anthropic prepares for a possible stock market listing.
Why Anthropic's loss needs context
Convertible bonds are a type of financial agreement that can be changed into company shares under certain agreed conditions. If the estimated value of these bonds changes, the company that issued them may have to report an accounting loss. The exact result depends on the terms of the bonds and the accounting rules that apply.
For Anthropic, the $72 billion charge made up almost 90 per cent of its reported loss in the first half of the year. So the $80.7 billion figure should not be understood as the amount of cash the company spent during that time.
But this accounting detail does not remove concerns about the company's actual finances. Reuters reported in September that Anthropic had an operating loss of about $8.1 billion in 2025, leaving out the large accounting charges linked to its financial instruments.
A company has an operating loss when the operating costs it records are greater than the money it earns from its main business. This gives a clearer picture of the cost of running the company, but it does not show exactly how much cash the company has spent.
Revenue surges as infrastructure costs climb
According to The Wall Street Journal, Anthropic's revenue rose to $16.3 billion in the first half of 2026, up from $1.1 billion in the same period a year earlier. Reuters reported that its spending on AI infrastructure nearly quadrupled, reaching almost $9 billion during the period, compared with $2.3 billion in the first half of 2025.
The company has benefited from strong demand for Claude, its AI assistant, and Claude Code, a tool that helps software developers write code and build applications.
Meeting this demand requires a great deal of computing power. AI companies need specialised chips, data centres and cloud services to train their AI models and run them for customers. As more people use their products, companies must secure more computing capacity. This creates high infrastructure costs and long-term financial commitments.
Anthropic has said it could spend as much as $750 billion over the coming years to secure computing capacity. This figure includes possible deals that are still being discussed, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Separately, Reuters reported that Anthropic's draft IPO document listed at least $518 billion in commitments over ten years for cloud services, computing power and infrastructure. These two figures cover different types or amounts of spending, so they should not be added together.
What investors will watch ahead of the IPO
Anthropic is still growing quickly, but investors are paying close attention to how fast that growth continues. Reuters reported that the company told potential IPO investors its revenue rose 45 per cent from the previous quarter to $16.8 billion in the third quarter. It also said it was profitable under adjusted accounting measures.
This followed a period of especially fast growth. Revenue more than doubled from the first quarter to the second quarter, reaching $11.6 billion in the second quarter. Reuters reported that some investors were disappointed because growth from one quarter to the next had slowed.
Adjusted profitability is not the same as net profit calculated using standard accounting rules. Investors will need to examine the basic costs of serving customers, the company's future infrastructure commitments and its ability to pay for further expansion.
The disclosures have also led investors to take another look at how much Anthropic might be worth. Reuters reported that some current and potential investors had discussed a valuation of around $1.5 trillion. This is below the roughly $2 trillion that had previously been expected for its planned November share sale.
Anthropic's IPO could be an important test of whether investors are willing to put large amounts of money into major AI companies. It could also offer a sign of investor interest ahead of a possible stock market listing by its rival OpenAI next year.
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First Published:Oct 21, 2026, 13:02:40 IST