Artificial intelligence firm Anthropic released its 335-page prospectus ahead of its highly anticipated US stock market listing, revealing a company burning through vast sums of money despite holding unprecedented cash reserves. The company lost $80.7bn in the first half of this year, double what it lost across 2025 altogether, according to the filing. Yet Anthropic holds $131.6bn in cash, nearly all of which is classified as working capital available for day-to-day operations. The company currently holds more cash on hand than Meta and Google combined. Anthropic has not yet disclosed a target share price, though it is widely expected to debut with a market valuation of $2 trillion or more, which would make it the largest stock listing in history.
The company's revenue reached $16.2bn for the six-month period, rising rapidly but not fast enough to offset its spending. Data centre leasing alone is costing Anthropic $321.4bn so far this year. The prospectus disclosed that a large portion of current business comes from just 250 major enterprise customers who have each paid at least $10m in the past year. An even smaller group of just five enterprise customers accounts for a quarter of current business, creating significant dependence on a small fraction of paying clients. However, Anthropic's overall enterprise customer base has grown from roughly 1,500 customers last year to almost 12,000 this year, the company said.
The Claude chatbot owner detailed substantial risks posed by its technology alongside claimed benefits. Anthropic warned that sufficiently advanced AI systems could pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity if not developed and deployed with appropriate safeguards. The company noted that less than a year ago, a hacking group it believed to be sponsored by China manipulated Claude to successfully intrude on large technology companies, financial institutions, chemical manufacturing companies and government agencies. Competition for top staff and computing power from other AI giants could further push costs higher.
Anthropic outlined its strategy for converting free users into paying customers over time, claiming Claude has achieved the fastest enterprise adoption of any technology in history. The company acknowledged that user growth can fluctuate, including a 20 per cent decline in customer spend in January that contributed to seasonal variations in business. Part of Anthropic's growth strategy relies on offering Claude tools free before working to convert these users into paying customers. The company reiterated its belief that frontier AI will produce extraordinary benefits, including advances in healthcare, personalised education and expert advice, more efficient power grids and batteries, and accelerated drug discovery.