Anthropic Tops OpenAI’s Annual Revenue on the Way to the Wall Street: Report

IPO-bound Anthropic has now pulled ahead of its rival OpenAI on annualised revenue.

Anthropic’s annual revenue run rate crossed $65 billion by the end of July, up from $47 billion in May and around $9 billion at the end of 2025, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, OpenAI’s revenue increased 18% sequentially to $6.7 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up from $5.7 billion in the first quarter, according to WSJ.

However, the company’s operating loss widened from $9.3 billion to $12.3 billion during the same period, putting further pressure on its path to profitability ahead of a potential IPO.

Anthropic Leapfrogs

Anthropic more than doubled its revenue to $11.6 billion in the second quarter, surpassing OpenAI for the first time. The company also recorded a small adjusted operating profit, according to WSJ.

The company expects its IPO to match or surpass the scale of SpaceX’s record-setting public listing, according to the report. It has largely grown fuelled by demand for Claude and Claude Code, its coding agent, particularly among enterprise customers. 

In May, the company raised $65 billion in funding at a valuation of $965 billion. The company also confidentially filed for a US IPO in June. It has, however, not disclosed the size or terms of the offering.

The Financial Times had reported that Anthropic’s investors expect the company to go public in October at a valuation of $2 trillion or more. If that happens, it would surpass SpaceX’s $1.77 trillion IPO valuation.

Anthropic’s backers expect the company’s annualised revenue to reach between $100 billion and $120 billion by the end of 2026, the report added.

Separately, Reuters reported that the company is forecasting revenue of $190–200 billion in 2028. Now, investors and bankers are using that metric to assess Anthropic’s potential public-market valuation, even as the company continues to spend heavily on infrastructure, model development, and talent.

OpenAI Prepares for IPO

At the same time, OpenAI’s revenue has also accelerated sharply. The Financial Times reported that OpenAI’s annual revenue has risen from around $24 billion in late 2025 to $40 billion, following the launch of its latest models. 

OpenAI’s latest private valuation stands at $852 billion. The company also filed confidential IPO paperwork with US regulators in June. 

OpenAI, however, doesn’t appear to be as much in a rush to go public. CNBC reported that OpenAI is preparing for a potential IPO as early as 2027. 

According to the report, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told employees at an all-hands meeting that the company expects to become a public company in 2027, although an earlier listing remains possible if its business growth accelerates.

“The IPO is not a finish line; it is a milestone, another fundraise,” Friar reportedly told employees.