Reported by The Guardian
The AI industry is still defined by a careening intensity that’s taking the world’s finances along for the ride
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Today in tech, we’re discussing Anthropic ’s astronomic growth, how a settlement over social media safety dented Meta’s revenue, and Lula’s accusations of interference against Meta .
More from the original report
Anthropic filed for an initial public offering on the US stock market on Monday, ahead of what it slated to be one of the biggest debuts in financial history. The company withheld a valuation from its filing with US financial regulators, but investors and analysts are valuing the AI firm at north of $1.5tn.
The numbers are jaw-dropping and speak to the speed of the AI boom. Anthropic was founded in 2021. That’s only five years ago, yet already it has grown to a valuation bigger than 98% of the top companies on the US stock market.
Anthropic detailed rapidly rising revenue in the prospectus: $41m in 2023, $386m in 2024, $4.585bn in 2025 (a yearly increase of more than 1,000%), then $16.286bn in the first six months of 2026 alone. The company disclosed that, as of the end of June, it had raised $141.1bn.
Despite the increasing revenue, Anthropic disclosed a net loss of $80bn for the first half of 2026, mostly due to a one-time $72.4bn charge. It lost $36bn the year prior.
Anthropic’s initial public offering will rock the US stock market and probably global markets as well. The infusion of at least a trillion dollars in value is likely to influence investor appetites for every kind of technology stock. That a company of that magnitude can be spun up in five years speaks to the breakneck pace of AI development and financing. Despite calls to slow down from Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, the artificial intelligence industry is still defined by a careening intensity that’s taking the world’s finances along for the ride.
Such rapid growth demonstrates an upside for company founders for now. They can build a business that…