Anthropic Has Its ‘Head in the Claudes’ After Revealing $895.4B in Compute Commitments in Filing

“Claude, buy more compute. Make no mistakes.” 

Sooo apparently, the AI safety company just signed up for… checks notes… $895.4B of compute.

Anthropic filed an amended S-1 on Monday, and tucked inside were purchase commitments and lease agreements worth $895.4B, “substantially all of which is related to compute and infrastructure.” Ok relax. Dario & Co. are reportedly eyeing a mid-November Nasdaq debut under the ticker ANT.

For context, last week’s original prospectus only ran through June. In Q3, Anthropic raked in roughly $17B, up about 1,127% from a year earlier, for $33.24B over nine months (up about 1,200%). Meanwhile, its compute and infrastructure bill for those nine months got $14.4B girthier than last year’s (+329%). Per the filing: “As our compute and infrastructure capacity grows, the associated compute and infrastructure expenses have increased.” Because, math.

It’s just that growth fell off a cliff. Q3 revenue rose about 47% from Q2, after 144% in Q2 and 132% in Q1. Price cuts on new models and contract discounts also shaved roughly $600M off sales between Q2 and Q3 (you’re welcome, tokenmaxxers).

As for the bottom line, Anthropic lost $23.29B in Q3 and $104B over nine months, up from $25.1B over the same stretch last year. Most of that is non-cash: its convertible notes (read: IOUs investors can swap for stock) get pricier on paper as Anthropic’s valuation climbs. Friendly reminder, Q2 was Anthropic’s first-ever operating profit ($974M). That lasted all of one quarter, of course. Q3 face-planted into a $567M operating loss, mostly because short-term compute costs way more than its long-term deals.

Meaning, the doomers are horny af for compute. Anthropic is sitting on $146.6B of dry powder (cash, short-term investments and a credit line), and the commitments are six times that, or about 13 years of revenue at Q3’s run rate for a five-year-old company. Woof.

But wait, there’s more… 

Dario Amodium (read: CEO Dario Amodei) also picked a fun time to kick off his doomsday road show. Wall Street is sweating that rising rates will make debt unaffordable for data center developers and neoclouds, and last week’s Microsoft, Google and Amazon reports showed AI spending eating into their cash flow. Amazon and Google (Anthropic’s sugar daddies) and SpaceX supply much of its compute, with neoclouds filling in. If they can’t build fast enough, Dario gets stuck renting more of the pricey short-term stuff that just flipped Q3 into the red.

Frenemy reminder, Dario and a handful of other researchers defected from OpenAI to start Anthropic. Dario’s ex filed confidentially back in June, but its execs are now signaling a 2027 debut. “Thank u, next.” - Dario, probably

Of course, this is the AI safety company, so the S-1 also packs 90+ pages of risk factors, like political headwinds, its complex infrastructure needs, and the tricky business of balancing safety with making money. Per the co-founders, “We consider it our personal responsibility to help the world understand these risks.” Not one of those pages mentions protection.

Your move, @sama…

Until next time, friends! 

 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News holds positions in Microsoft, Google, and Amazon as mentioned in the article.