Anthropic’s IPO filing shows that the company recorded $16.979 billion in operating expenses in the first half of 2026, compared with $16.286 billion in revenue, leaving an operating loss of $693 million. Compute remained the largest cost line, but the fastest growth came from sales, marketing, and partnership expenses, which climbed from $120 million in the same period a year earlier to $3.168 billion, about 26.4 times higher.
The filing only provides financial data through June 30. Third-quarter figures were still blank in the registration document, so the numbers discussed here are limited to the first half or the second quarter.
How Anthropic spent its money in the first half
Using the filing’s breakdown, Anthropic divided operating expenses into four main categories. For every $100 of revenue, the company spent about $55 on compute and infrastructure, or $8.945 billion. That line includes payments to cloud providers for computing, data centers, electricity, and hardware leases.
Personnel costs came to about $19 per $100 of revenue, or $3.152 billion, including salaries and stock-based compensation. Sales, marketing, and partnership costs were also about $19, totaling $3.168 billion. Other operating and administrative expenses were about $11, or $1.714 billion, covering matching donation programs, outsourced data quality evaluation, cloud software, payment processing fees, and professional services.
Taken together, the four categories added up to $104 in operating expenses for every $100 of revenue, implying an operating loss of about $4. In the same period a year earlier, that figure was $284.
Compute stayed on top, and much of it was not tied to paying customers
The filing says compute contracts are usually signed 12 to 18 months in advance, with expenses recognized when the capacity is delivered. That makes the near-term cost base relatively fixed. First-half compute expense rose 283% because previously contracted capacity was coming online.
A separate table by function shows cost of revenue at just $2.380 billion, almost entirely tied to compute used to serve customers. That implies at least $6.5 billion of compute expense went to research, training, internal use, and free-tier offerings rather than paid customer usage.
Why sales and marketing costs surged
The headline jump in “marketing” was not mainly about advertising. In the filing, the formal category is sales, marketing, and partnership expense, made up of channel partner fees and marketing and advertising.
In the first half of 2026, that category increased by $3.048 billion, or 2,540%. Of that increase, about $2.7 billion came from channel partner fees, while marketing and advertising rose by only $273 million, which the filing said was used for media spending tied to product launches. In other words, nearly 90% of the increase came from channel costs.
The filing gives only a brief explanation for those channel fees, saying they reflect business growth. It does not list the partners, fee rates, or total amounts by counterparty.
The article notes that revenue generated through cloud service provider marketplaces accounted for 11% of total revenue in 2023, 32% in 2024, 47% in 2025, and 48% in the first half of 2026. That revenue is recognized on a gross basis, meaning the cloud provider’s share is not deducted from revenue.
Based on that, the original article argues that channel fees may scale with revenue more like a revenue-sharing cost than a discretionary marketing budget. The filing itself does not explicitly say those channel partners are cloud providers, and the article labels that point as the author’s inference.
Revenue grew faster than costs, and second-quarter operating profit turned positive
First-half revenue was 14 times the level of the same period a year earlier, while compute expense was 3.8 times higher. The gap widened in the second quarter: revenue rose 1,368% year over year, while compute expense increased 300%.
Quarter by quarter, compute expense as a share of revenue fell from 251% in the first quarter of 2025 to 48% in the second quarter of 2026. Total operating expenses as a share of revenue dropped from 349% to 92%. The filing says the reason is that compute had already been contracted, so rapid revenue growth diluted the ratio.
In the second quarter, Anthropic posted $11.555 billion in revenue, $10.581 billion in operating expenses, and $974 million in operating profit. It was the first positive operating profit among the six quarters shown in the filing. Compared with the prior quarter, revenue rose 144% while operating expenses increased 65%.
Adjusted operating profit versus GAAP
The company also highlighted adjusted operating profit. It calculates that figure by adding back stock-based compensation, non-cash donations, and the $1.5 billion Bartz copyright settlement recorded in 2025.
For the second quarter of 2026, adjusted operating profit was $2.235 billion, with an adjusted operating margin of 19%. The GAAP operating margin was 8%. The $1.261 billion gap between the two matched the quarter’s stock-based compensation expense.
What the filing says to watch next
Anthropic disclosed major commitments tied to compute and related infrastructure. They include at least $114.5 billion with Google through July 2033, at least $110 billion with Amazon through April 2036, up to $120.5 billion with SpaceXAI, formerly xAI, through 2029, and hardware lease payments with Broadcom totaling about $161.2 billion, excluding interest.
The filing left blank the total amount of contractual obligations and the amount due over the next 12 months. It also warned that when new compute capacity comes online, expenses may appear before the associated revenue, which could compress operating margins. Short-term compute bought on short notice also carries a higher unit price, and the filing says that is expected to increase in the near term.
Stock-based compensation is the other major item. That expense rose from $105 million in the first quarter of 2025 to $1.261 billion in the second quarter of 2026. Restricted stock units granted to employees require both service and performance conditions. The filing says the performance condition would be met when the registration becomes effective, so related expense had not yet been recognized by June 30.
Anthropic estimates that if the listing had been completed by June 30, it would have recognized a one-time $2.9 billion charge, with another roughly $23.7 billion amortized over about 2.1 years. The actual amount was left blank. The article notes that $2.9 billion is about three times the company’s second-quarter GAAP operating profit, which would weigh on GAAP results in the listing quarter but would not appear in adjusted figures.
For now, revenue growth has moved ahead of cost growth. But Anthropic has already signed compute-related commitments stretching into the 2030s. If those costs continue to come online while revenue growth slows, the pressure could build again.
