Technology and Scienceupdated 1h ago2 min read
Anthropic Says Compute Costs Jumped From $5.56 Billion To $9.86 Billion In Q3
“revenue growth from increased usage was ‘partially offset by a decrease of approximately $600 million”
“compute margins are moving in the wrong direction, defying the basic economies of scale”
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Q3 compute costs jumped to $9.86 billion from $5.56 billion. Q3 revenue reached about $16.96 billion, signaling strong top-line growth.
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Compute costs surge
Anthropic disclosed that its third-quarter revenue growth was “partially offset by a decrease of approximately $600 million from price reductions introduced as part of new model versions and contractual discounts,” even as the company pushed to make Claude cheaper to use. Anthropic also reported that compute and infrastructure expenses surged from $5.56 billion to $9.86 billion, an increase of roughly 77%, and the company’s amended filing framed the spending as compute used for research, training, and internal operations.
Anthropic’s amended S-1 showed the business swung from a $974 million operating profit in the second quarter to a $567 million operating loss in the third, with the compute bill and other charges complicating the picture. Anthropic’s disclosures also tied the near-term cost pressure to capacity timing, with the company typically reserving compute capacity 12 to 18 months before it becomes available, leaving much of that spending relatively fixed in the near term.
Margins worsen, IPO looms
Anthropic’s amended S-1 extended its disclosures through September 30 and showed compute-related profit margins worsening, with compute taking up 58% of the company’s revenue in the new quarter, up from 48% in the previous quarter. Anthropic said it expected “compute and infrastructure costs to continue rising in absolute dollar terms,” and it added that the costs would remain its largest operating expense for the foreseeable future as it secured additional committed compute through multi-year arrangements.
Anthropic’s compute bill reached $10 billion for the quarter, including “$5 billion in short-term committed compute, which currently costs significantly more than comparable compute acquired through multi-year commitments.” Fortune reported that analysts said Anthropic’s IPO math and past experience were not on its side, and Jay Ritter told Fortune that to justify a valuation north of $1.4 trillion, Anthropic needs a path toward annual after-tax profits of at least $100 billion.
Tokenomics and commitments
Tech Policy Press argued that Anthropic’s S-1 left investors without key unit economics, saying the filing “does not report token volumes (how many tokens Anthropic’s models processed for customers).” Tech Policy Press also said Anthropic had not yet filed with its S-1 the contracts to buy computing power from firms on which it is substantially dependent, even as it reported that “More than 40% of its revenue comes through the cloud marketplaces of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.”
Anthropic’s disclosures put a large figure on future capacity commitments, with the amended S-1 showing aggregate lease and purchasing commitments at roughly $895.4 billion, “substantially all of which is related to compute and infrastructure.” Business Insider reported that Anthropic wrote its Q3 operating loss was “primarily driven by $5.0 billion of compute under short-term commitments,” and the company disclosed about $895 billion in committed spending on compute and infrastructure, nearly half of it expected by the end of 2030.