Anthropic Flags Quarterly Profit as It Prepares for Market Float

Anthropic saw its revenue surge by 45 per cent to $16.8bn in the three months to the end of September, the BBC understands. The figure was disclosed by the Claude developer during a briefing for prospective investors on Wednesday, as it lays the groundwork for a stock market listing expected before the end of the year. An Anthropic spokesperson declined to comment.

The company's revenue has climbed in successive quarters this year, from $4.7bn in the first three months to $11.6bn in the following period. It also reportedly told investors at the event, held at its San Francisco headquarters, that it had made a profit for the second quarter in a row. Its figures, alongside those of rival OpenAI, offer an important gauge of the AI industry's growth and its capacity to finance the infrastructure needed to develop the technology.

The disclosure came as some technology stocks, including firms that make the chips and other hardware powering data centres, have fallen in recent days over concerns about the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on AI infrastructure. Shares in chip makers including AMD, Nvidia and Intel fell sharply on Wednesday. In Asia, shares in the Japanese tech investment firm Softbank were down by more than 9 per cent on Thursday. South Korean semiconductor giants also dropped, with Samsung falling 9.5 per cent and SK Hynix 11 per cent lower. Tech-heavy indexes across the region slid, and trading on South Korea's Kospi and Kosdaq was temporarily halted after falls of more than 8 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei 225 lost close to 5 per cent.

Shares have been falling all week after remarks by Hock Tan, chief executive of the US tech manufacturer Broadcom, about AI spending. Speaking at a conference in Singapore on Monday, Tan said many investors have no clue and have set extreme expectations only to find out that it's almost like they are in a casino. The falls deepened after US inflation data released on Wednesday showed price rises accelerated by more than expected in September. Investors fear that higher inflation will make the US Federal Reserve more likely to raise the cost of borrowing.

There have also been worries about the safety of AI models. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said in September that his company would not go public this year as it addresses concerns about the technology's safety. The ChatGPT developer is also eyeing a bumper listing, expected to value the firm at more than $1tn. Anthropic has been vocal about AI's risks, with its chief executive, Dario Amodei, calling for the pace of development to slow. The company has continued to expand globally, opening an office in Singapore on Wednesday.