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Anthropic's growth just flattened
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- DeepHorus
Anthropic disclosed preliminary third-quarter financial results to investors this week, reporting $16.8 billion in revenue, according to The New York Times’ DealBook. The figure marks another large sequential increase for one of the fastest-growing companies in AI history. Yet the underlying trend suggests the company’s growth rate has flattened.
Revenue rose from $4.8 billion in the first quarter to $11.6 billion in the second quarter, a 141% sequential jump. In the third quarter, revenue increased by $5.2 billion, or 45%, to $16.8 billion. That absolute gain was smaller than the $6.8 billion added in the prior quarter, signaling a meaningful slowdown.
A closer look at monthly estimates sharpens the picture. Anthropic reportedly reached a $65 billion annualized revenue run rate in July, equivalent to roughly $5.4 billion in monthly revenue. If the company generated $16.8 billion across the entire third quarter, growth in August and September appears to have been modest.
The slowdown matters beyond Anthropic. Neocloud providers such as CoreWeave have borrowed tens of billions of dollars on assumptions that AI compute demand will keep expanding far beyond consensus forecasts. Rising interest rates are already increasing the carrying costs of that debt, and flattening near-term revenue growth for AI services adds pressure.
Possible explanations include seasonal weakness in August, capacity constraints that prevent Anthropic from meeting demand, or a broader moderation in AI spending. DealBook noted that Anthropic did not share a September annualized revenue figure with investors, which may suggest the metric would not show impressive growth versus July.
The key question now is what the figures imply for Anthropic’s future growth and potential IPO valuation. For now, the data suggest the market should temper expectations. If the leading AI company’s revenue growth is slowing, the entire AI investment thesis may face a more cautious near-term test.
