Anthropic targets $2 trillion valuation despite lacking net profit
Anthropic has filed a confidential IPO and is being valued at up to $2 trillion, but analysts note the company still needs to achieve substantial net income to justify the price.
Anthropic filed a confidential registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in June, aiming for a valuation that could exceed $2 trillion, more than double its $965 billion worth after a Series H round in May. The company is also reportedly in talks to acquire Decart AI for $6 billion. While rivals such as OpenAI plan IPOs later, Anthropic has not set a public timeline for its offering.
The firm’s revenue run-rate is projected to rise sharply, with Wall Street Journal data indicating second-quarter 2026 revenue of $10.9 billion and the first reported operating profit. However, operating profit does not include interest, taxes or other expenses, and analysts say net income would need to reach $59-79 billion at typical Nasdaq-100 valuation multiples to support a $2 trillion market cap.
"Just seeing the [$2 trillion] number, it’s definitely jolting," said Avery Marquez, director of investment strategies at Renaissance Capital. She added that approaching operating profitability would make the valuation appear less extreme.
Comparisons with other mega-valued firms show the gap: Nvidia, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft and TSMC all posted net incomes well above $100 billion, while Amazon, which recently invested in Anthropic, reported $77.7 billion in net income, of which $53.4 billion was non-operating pre-tax income linked to its Anthropic stake.
Anthropic’s revenue reportedly grew from about $9 billion at the end of 2025 to $47 billion by mid-May, with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff estimating a run-rate of $74.1 billion, surpassing OpenAI’s $41.3 billion. Benioff praised the company’s enterprise offerings, noting its leading model, coding agents and productivity tool.
Investors are also scrutinizing Anthropic’s compute strategy. Neostellar Capital’s Evan Schlossberg said the source and terms of the company’s hardware access—whether owned, long-term leased or short-term leased—will affect margins and overall profitability.
Anthropic has secured capacity agreements with Amazon, Google, Broadcom and SpaceX, and a potential Decart acquisition could add software to improve chip efficiency. Analysts suggest that completing such deals before an IPO roadshow is common practice to present stronger pro-forma financials.
The valuation outlook for Anthropic is seen as a benchmark for OpenAI. Schlossberg described the $2 trillion figure as “exciting” for OpenAI investors, noting that strong demand for Anthropic could signal similar market dynamics for its rival. Both firms face constraints on compute capacity, limiting the likelihood of a single model dominating global AI demand.
Marquez warned that the key challenge for Anthropic will be defining appropriate financial metrics for investors, while OpenAI may benefit from having a clear public peer for comparison.
"The big hangup for the valuation is, what metrics make sense for this company?" Marquez said.
"I don’t think that’s going to deter OpenAI at all," she added.