Anthropic is still grappling with the economics of compute

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There’s a lot of mystery around the finances of major AI labs, and as Anthropic inches towards its IPO, we’re starting to get some answers. In particular, the company is finally disclosing more about the economics of compute, and how much it of Anthropic’s skyrocketing revenue is being lost to compute costs.

In a new filing on Monday, Anthropic released data that showed those margins on compute actually getting worse. The filing was an update to the S-1 released last week — but where that filing’s financial disclosures only covered through June 30th of this year, the new data extended to disclose results through an extra quarter, to September 30th.

Broadly, Anthropic had a good quarter: revenue reached $17 billion, up from $11.5 billion in the previous quarter, suggesting durable growth. But the operating loss grew at the same time, thanks in large part to growing compute costs.

Looking at the compute margins makes the picture even worse. In the new quarter, compute took up 58% of the company’s revenue, up from 48% the quarter before. At a moment when the company could win over IPO investors by showing margins improving, they’re getting worse.

A chart in the filing shows this even more clearly, tracking the company’s revenue for every dollar spent on compute.