이미지: TechCrunch AI
Summary
- Anthropic's annualized revenue run rate topped $65 billion by late July, surging from $47 billion in May and $9 billion at the end of 2025
- Investors expect Anthropic to grow to a $100–120 billion run rate by the end of this year
- OpenAI's annualized revenue also doubled to $40 billion from the end of 2025, but it hasn't drawn as much investor attention as Anthropic
- 앤트로픽 연환산 매출(7월 말)
- 650억 달러
- 5월 연환산 매출
- 470억 달러
- 2025년 말 연환산 매출
- 90억 달러
- 연말 전망(투자자 기대)
- 1000억~1200억 달러
- 오픈AI 연환산 매출(8월 13일 기준)
- 약 400억 달러(2025년 말 200억 달러에서 2배)
- 앤트로픽 최근 밸류에이션
- 9650억 달러(5월 650억 달러 라운드 기준)
- IPO 목표 밸류에이션
- 2조 달러 이상
$18 billion added in two months
Anthropic's annualized revenue run rate surpassed $65 billion as of late July. A run rate takes recent short-term results and projects them over a full year, and this figure jumped $18 billion in just two months, from $47 billion in May. Going further back, it stood at $9 billion at the end of 2025. According to Bloomberg, this pace suggests growth is accelerating rather than slowing down.
Anthropic is the maker of Claude. While Amazon and Google are providing massive investment and server infrastructure, Anthropic is the sole entity building the models. The company closed a $65 billion funding round in May at a $965 billion valuation, and this latest revenue disclosure—coming just two and a half months later—has once again drawn investor attention.
OpenAI doubled too, but
Rival OpenAI also saw sharp revenue growth. According to a Bloomberg report from last week, OpenAI's annualized revenue run rate reached $40 billion, doubling from $20 billion at the end of 2025. It's worth noting the two companies may calculate revenue differently, but even accounting for that, investors are paying closer attention to Anthropic.
| Point in time | Anthropic annualized revenue | OpenAI annualized revenue |
|---|---|---|
| End of 2025 | $9 billion bar:8 | $20 billion bar:18 |
| May 2026 | $47 billion bar:42 | - |
| July–August 2026 | $65 billion bar:59 | $40 billion bar:36 |
The case for a $2 trillion valuation
Both companies are reported to have already filed confidential IPO paperwork. Anthropic, however, appears set to go public before OpenAI. According to the Financial Times, a listing could come as early as this fall, with a target valuation of over $2 trillion. If achieved, that would make it the largest market debut in history.
At an investor meeting held on August 11, Anthropic was already discussing plans to target an IPO in September or early October. Investors at the meeting reportedly pressed hard on questions about low-cost Chinese models like Moonshot and DeepSeek, the company's relationship with the Trump administration, and public opposition to data centers. This latest revenue surge announcement effectively hands Anthropic numbers substantial enough to offset those concerns.
Revenue rose even as prices fell
What's notable is that this revenue surge coincides with a period of price cuts. As confirmed on August 14, Anthropic launched Claude Opus 5 at half the price of its top-tier model, Fable 5, and scrapped planned price increases for Sonnet 5. OpenAI also cut input and output token prices for GPT-5.6 Luna by 80% each. These were defensive price cuts aimed at retaining enterprise customers who might otherwise switch to Chinese models—yet both companies' revenues rose anyway, suggesting usage grew by more than enough to offset the lower prices.
Editor's take
Looking purely at the numbers, this isn't a question of growth rate—it's a question of trajectory. OpenAI doubled its revenue. Anthropic added an amount equal to 40% of its May revenue in just two months. In absolute growth terms, OpenAI is still larger, but what investors are reacting to is how long this trend can be sustained. Connect the three data points—$47 billion in May, $65 billion in July, and a year-end target of $100–120 billion—and the curve shows no sign of bending, which is why the market is reacting so strongly.
In the past, a revenue disclosure like this might have ended up as a one-line press release announcing some milestone in annual recurring revenue (ARR). But now, with an IPO on the horizon, numbers like these immediately become bargaining chips in valuation negotiations. The basis for Anthropic's $2 trillion ask ultimately comes down to this curve. Compared with its $965 billion valuation in May, that would mean re-pricing itself at more than 20 times that figure in just three months—something only possible because revenue has genuinely grown enough to support the logic.
For domestic companies, the takeaway is simple. Organizations using Claude or GPT-series APIs are seeing prices continue to fall, which creates room to increase usage. But how long these price cuts will last remains uncertain. It could be a temporary sacrifice to build a favorable revenue curve ahead of an IPO, or it could reflect a genuine improvement in underlying cost structure. That distinction will only become clear once actual financial statements are disclosed after going public.
In the coming weeks, the key questions will be whether Anthropic's actual IPO filings become public and what specific listing timeline emerges. OpenAI is likely to be drawn into comparisons around the same period, meaning revenue disclosures from both companies will likely continue to serve as competitive leverage against each other for the foreseeable future.
