Anthropic's second profitable quarter lands before the IPO

A quarter that brought in $787 million a year earlier brought in more than $11.5 billion this time, according to documents viewed by Bloomberg. Anthropic has now told shareholders that its adjusted operating income will be positive for a second straight quarter, FT reports.

At a glance

• Business Insider reported that Anthropic picked Nasdaq and has been targeting an October debut, for a listing that Livemint has also reported the company is planning.
• Valuation talk rests on a forecast of $190–200 billion in revenue for 2028, per Reuters, while Business Insider described the estimates circulating near $2 trillion as not finalized.
• The income figure is adjusted, meaning the company picks which costs to leave out, and no public breakdown shows which exclusions sit behind the two positive quarters.

If you have not followed the valuation ladder, it moved quickly. According to Uspec, a mid-stage round in March 2025 valued Anthropic at about $61.5 billion post-money, and a $13 billion Series F later that year more than doubled the post-money figure to $183 billion. Those rounds came from long-standing venture partners and large strategic investors, per the same account.

A quarter that was $787 million a year earlier came in above $11.5 billion

The first of the two positive quarters brought preliminary revenue of more than $11.5 billion, according to documents viewed by Bloomberg. The same quarter a year earlier brought $787 million, per the same documents.

Where that money comes from is less exotic than the growth rate suggests. Uspec describes Anthropic's revenue model as built on enterprise services and structured model access agreements for large organisations, favouring long contracts and embedded integrations over scattered developer experiments and short-term consumer use. The layered streams, per the same description, include API licensing, dedicated model deployments and advisory support, which compound as enterprise adoption deepens.

What does "adjusted" leave out?

Operating profit, per Investopedia, is operating revenue minus cost of goods sold, minus operating expenses, minus depreciation and amortisation. It is the same measure as EBIT, earnings before interest and taxes, and it excludes interest on debt, taxes and one-off items such as the sale of an asset.

Net income is the wider measure. Per the same explainer, it takes in all income, expenses and taxes for the period, so it shows overall profitability rather than the efficiency of the core business. Investopedia also notes that a company can present operating profit on an adjusted basis, deducting deferred taxes for example, so an adjusted figure need not match the standard definition.

The number Anthropic has given shareholders is adjusted operating income, not net income. The everyday version: calling a household solvent after setting aside the mortgage interest and the tax bill tells you something real about the monthly budget, and nothing about whether the house is paid for.

Nasdaq and an October debut are the reported targets

Business Insider reported that Anthropic settled on Nasdaq and has been aiming for an October debut, and Livemint has reported that the company has a planned IPO. The second positive quarter is landing in front of shareholders while that process runs.

Valuation talk rests on a forecast of $190–200 billion in revenue for 2028, per Reuters. Business Insider described the estimates circulating near $2 trillion as not finalized. According to Uspec, CNBC reported that in January 2026 Anthropic closed a round of $10–15 billion at a $350 billion valuation, above the $183 billion post-money figure of the Series F.

What none of this shows is which costs the adjusted figure sets aside, since no breakdown of the exclusions has been published, and a positive adjusted operating income says nothing about net income once interest and taxes are counted. In our view, two adjusted quarters are a slim floor under a $2 trillion estimate that Business Insider itself called unfinished.

The October window on Nasdaq

October is a target, per Business Insider, not a fixed date, and no day has been named publicly. Two checkpoints are worth watching from here: whether a third consecutive quarter comes in positive, and whether listing documents put operating income on a standard basis next to the adjusted one. Until one of those lands, the $2 trillion number stays an estimate.