Until recently, Anthropic was viewed as the strongest challenger to OpenAI, but not necessarily the frontrunner. Today, that perception has shifted. The company behind Claude has surpassed its rival in two metrics closely watched by investors: annualized revenue run rate and valuation, while simultaneously accelerating its preparations for a Wall Street debut.
Explosive Revenue Growth
Anthropic's annual revenue run rate surged to $65 billion by late July 2026, up from approximately $9 billion at the end of 2025. While this indicator is a 12-month projection of current sales rather than realized annual revenue, the sevenfold increase in just seven months is staggering.
Preliminary quarterly data confirms this momentum: Anthropic recorded revenue exceeding $11.5 billion in the most recent quarter, compared to $787 million during the same period in 2025. Overall, the company generated approximately $16.2 billion in the first half of 2026, achieving a positive adjusted operating result.
Claude Code and the Enterprise Shift
Anthropic's growth is largely fueled by demand from businesses and developers. Tools like Claude Code have become central for software development and the automation of complex corporate workflows, creating stable recurring revenue streams that investors value more than casual consumer chatbot usage.
- Valuation reached $965 billion in the May funding round.
- Collaboration with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan for the IPO.
- Projected revenue between $190B and $200B for 2028.
The IPO Race
Anthropic has filed confidential documents for a potential public offering, positioning it in a direct race with OpenAI and China’s DeepSeek to be the first major AI model developer to hit the public markets. A debut as early as this autumn could grant Anthropic a significant advantage in attracting capital before the market is asked to absorb multiple large-scale AI listings.
