Every headline about Anthropic’s IPO filing led with the same number…
$80.7 billion - how much the company lost in the first six months of 2026.
I’d argue it’s the least important number in the document…
Because $72.4 billion of that loss is an accounting entry.
They’re just convertible bonds (IOUs that convert into shares later)
So as the company’s value soared, those IOUs became worth more, and the rules say that increase gets booked as a loss.
So Anthropic’s cash position is unaffected.
And factoring that in… the business underneath is remarkable.
Revenue for all of 2023 was $41 million… and yet for the first half of this year it was $16.3 billion.
The company is on track to be the fastest company ever to hit $40 billion in annual revenue… doing so in just 5 years… 9 years less than it took the previous fastest (Meta)
When it comes to DBNRR, a metric of how much incremental spend customers are making each year… Anthropic’s is 900%.
Not a typo. Customers who spent $1 with Anthropic a year ago now spend about $9.
Anything over 130% would be considered world class. Anthropic’s is 900%.
I’ve backed great businesses before… I recommended Meta at $99, Palantir at $10 and Microsoft at $230.
So I read these filings looking for reasons to justify Anthropic’s insane valuation…
And instead, I found a part which I absolutely hate…
You see, Anthropic has already handed 5% of the company to its own charity fund.
And every time the stock jumps 50% from its last high-water mark, starting from the IPO price, the board can give that fund up to another 2%.
So the better the stock does, the smaller your slice of the pie gets.
Say it happens three times. You’d own close to 6% less of the company than you started with.
And if the stock drops back down afterwards? Tough luck, because those shares don’t get handed back.
My favorite part though… Anthropic is set up as a Public Benefit Corporation…
So the directors are legally required to weigh your stock returns against “the long-term benefit of humanity.”
uwotm8
“Yeah sorry man we diluted your returns away but it was for the long term benefit of humanity innit…”
Utterly ridiculous…
So when the stock gets listed… think twice before you buy “the next Amazon” or whatever the hype merchants will call this one…
And last time I checked, Amazon never went public at a trillion dollar plus valuation…
So I’ll be sitting this one out
Oliver