Anthropic, which has posted explosive growth on the back of its agentic artificial intelligence product Claude Code, is poised to record its first quarterly profit just five years after its founding. Expectations are also rising that the company's annual profitability, previously projected for 2028, could come sooner than expected.
According to investor materials obtained by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday (local time), Anthropic projects second-quarter revenue of $10.9 billion (about 16.3 trillion won), more than double the $4.8 billion (7.2 trillion won) recorded in the first quarter. Anthropic disclosed the figures to investors as part of an ongoing funding round.
According to the materials, Anthropic projects second-quarter operating profit of $559 million (840.2 billion won). Anthropic had previously told investors last year that an annual profit would be difficult to achieve before 2028, but at this pace, observers say the timeline for annual profitability could be moved forward.
Founded in 2021 by the Amodei siblings, Anthropic launched Claude in 2023 and is now within reach of profitability roughly three years later. The WSJ assessed that Anthropic's corporate valuation is likely to surpass that of rival OpenAI.
Q2 Revenue Up 127%, in Stark Contrast to Google's 7% Pre-IPO Growth
Anthropic's revenue growth surpasses that of Google and Facebook (now Meta) in the period leading up to their initial public offerings (IPOs). Google, which listed in August 2004, and Facebook, which listed in May 2012, did not see quarterly revenue gains as large as Anthropic's before their listings. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Google's second-quarter 2004 revenue was $700.21 million, up only 7% from $651.62 million in the previous quarter. Facebook's first-quarter 2012 revenue was $1.058 billion, actually down 6% from $1.131 billion in the previous quarter.
The investment race in the AI model ecosystem has taken shape as a three-way contest among Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX, which acquired xAI. All three companies are aiming for valuations exceeding $1 trillion. Among them, Claude Code, which autonomously carries out user commands, is drawing the most attention as it secures a leading position in the business-to-business (B2B) market. However, the WSJ noted that direct comparisons between Anthropic and OpenAI may be difficult because the two companies use different revenue accounting methods.
Dario Amodei, Anthropic's chief executive officer (CEO), expressed confidence at a developer conference in San Francisco earlier this month, joking, "Revenue growth has become too hard to handle. I'd like some more ordinary numbers."
Computing Costs Cut 21%, but Burden Remains; Efficiency Gains Are Key
The challenge that remains for Anthropic is improving efficiency. As demand for its products has grown, the strain on computing resources has intensified, forcing Anthropic to impose some service restrictions on paying users. Because spending rises in line with computing demand, some argue that turning a profit this year will not be easy.
In response, Anthropic has been pulling out all the stops to secure resources, recently signing a series of new data center contracts with cloud computing providers, including rival SpaceX. As a result, Anthropic's second-quarter computing costs are projected at 56 cents per dollar of revenue, a 21% reduction from the previous quarter.
National security and cybersecurity controversies are also variables. Anthropic clashed with the Donald Trump administration after refusing to grant the U.S. Department of Defense technology control authority, but relations are showing signs of improvement as the two sides have held multiple rounds of talks recently regarding the Mithos model.
