Anthropic, the AI juggernaut running full speed, hits a 'tackle' on growth right before IPO: The decisive reason why

Imagine a supercar racing down a track at 300 km/h, only to slam on the brakes just a few meters before the finish line. The engine is still roaring, but smoke is pouring from the chassis and the needle on the speedometer is dropping rapidly. The spectators and investors watching are rubbing their eyes, unable to hide their bewilderment.

This is exactly the scene surrounding Anthropic, one of the most highly anticipated players in the global artificial intelligence (AI) market. Anthropic, well-known for its conversational AI “Claude,” updated its stock market filing just days before its planned listing on the U.S. Nasdaq. However, the latest report card contained in this filing is delivering a significant shock to the global financial markets and the AI industry. Although its revenue scale remains massive, the dazzling growth rate it had been showing has dropped sharply, and it has returned to operating losses due to ballooning costs. What on earth is happening at Anthropic?

Why is this important?

You might think, “What does the performance of Big Tech or an AI startup have to do with me?” However, this issue is not just about one company’s bank balance. It is directly linked to the future of the AI services we use every day and, furthermore, the landscape of the global economy.

For a long time, the AI industry and investors held a single, powerful belief: the myth that “no matter how much money is poured in, if the number of users explodes and revenue grows rapidly, it will eventually return as massive profits.” However, the performance Anthropic disclosed right before its Initial Public Offering (IPO, the process of offering shares to the public) is the first time a giant question mark has been cast over this massive “AI winner-takes-all myth.”

Simply put, the fallout is immense if even a company evaluated as having the world’s best AI technology struggles because it cannot handle the costs while generating trillions of won in revenue. The subscription fees for the AI services we will use in the future could rise significantly, or features that were provided without limit could be restricted. If companies start to cut investment in AI infrastructure, the entire semiconductor and IT market could freeze. This is why Anthropic’s revenue growth slowdown is being taken by the market as a “red flag for an AI bubble” Anthropic’s slowing growth could be the AI trade’s latest red flag.

Making it easy to understand

To understand this situation at a glance, let’s use the analogy of the “world’s hottest large-scale bakery.”

Imagine you opened a bakery that makes the most delicious bread in the world. As soon as word got out, there was a line out the door, and customers started lining up to buy your bread.

• Early explosive growth phase: As customers flooded in, revenue jumped several times over in a single month. The bakery owner cheered, saying, “I’m going to conquer the global bread market soon!”
• Facing costs and limits: However, to bake hundreds of thousands of loaves of bread every day, you need massive ovens. You have to bring in thousands of ovens, and gas and electricity bills cost hundreds of millions of won every month. You also have to hire thousands of new professional bakers.
• Slowing growth and turning to losses: Revenue increased, but the speed at which oven costs, electricity bills, and labor costs were going out was much faster than the money earned from selling bread. At some point, the rate of increase in customers also stopped growing as wildly as before. In the end, even though you earned tens of billions of won in a month, looking at the books showed that instead of money in your hand, you were seeing massive losses.

Here, the bakery is Anthropic, and the ovens and electricity costs are AI Graphics Processing Units (GPUs, high-performance semiconductors responsible for the core calculations of AI) and data center operating costs.

For a company to be listed on the stock market, it must submit a registration statement (S-1, a document where a company transparently discloses its financial status and business risks). Anthropic also pushed for a Nasdaq listing and submitted a registration statement, designating ‘ANT’ as its ticker symbol Anthropic’s IPO filing shows explosive growth, risks and staggering costs. However, it was revealed in an updated registration statement submitted just before the listing that its growth rate had dropped significantly and costs had exploded Anthropic Just Released Updated Numbers Ahead of Its Nov. IPO ….

Where do they stand?

When looking at the numbers, Anthropic’s achievements and concerns become much clearer.

1. A meteoric rise and explosive growth

Anthropic first unveiled its conversational AI assistant, “Claude,” in March 2023 Anthropic raises $13B Series F at $183B valuation | Anthropic. Following its release, as the number of users soared, revenue also soared to unbelievable levels. Its annualized run-rate revenue in early 2025 was around $1 billion (approx. 1.3 trillion KRW), but in just eight months, by August 2025, it easily surpassed $5 billion (approx. 6.8 trillion KRW) Anthropic raises $13B Series F at $183B valuation | Anthropic.

2. The shadow of organizational expansion

As the company grew, the number of employees increased to over 1,200 Anthropic Approaches $7B Run Rate in 2025, Outpaces…. However, due to overly rapid growth, its financial operating system was overloaded, and the company even faced a situation where it had to develop its own financial management tools Anthropic growth strains financial systems, eyes internal tool development. It is like a small shop that suddenly has to handle trillions of won, causing its books to become paralyzed.

3. A reversal of performance

Anthropic’s Q3 performance, released ahead of its November 2026 listing, showed two very contradictory faces Anthropic Just Released Updated Numbers Ahead of Its Nov. IPO ….

• Enormous revenue: Q3 revenue jumped to around $16.8 billion to $17 billion (approx. 23 trillion KRW) Anthropic’s growth slowed and costs jumped in the third quarter, updated IPO filing shows.
• Changes in growth trajectory: The sequential revenue growth rate, which shows how much revenue increased compared to the previous quarter, slowed significantly Anthropic Just Released Updated Numbers Ahead of Its Nov. IPO ….
• The return of losses: Although revenue increased, operating costs—such as server rentals and training expenses—soared even more, and the company left behind the temporary profit trend it had tasted and returned to operating losses Anthropic’s growth slowed and costs jumped in the third quarter, updated IPO filing shows.

What comes next?

In a situation where growth is slowing and losses are widening, what future will Anthropic paint? A hint can be found in CEO Dario Amodei’s philosophy. He has argued that the pace of AI technological advancement has exceeded the control of researchers, and therefore development speed should be intentionally slowed What to Make of the Anthropic Warning.

This conviction is expected to bring three changes to Anthropic’s strategy:

1. ‘Efficiency’ instead of unconditional performance competition: Instead of pouring money into making only giant models, they will focus on developing efficient models that can be usefully applied in daily life at lower costs.
2. Strengthening the enterprise (B2B) market: To ensure profitability, they will strengthen customized services for enterprise customers who have clear business models.
3. Cold evaluation by investors: After listing, Anthropic’s stock price will become a testing ground for the market, asking “when can you make money on your own?” rather than the splendor of the technology.

This adjustment period for Anthropic is a signal that the AI industry has passed the immature period of “storm and stress” and has entered a “maturity stage” where it must prove its practical business value.

AI’s perspective

AI Reporter’s Perspective from MindTickleBytes

Anthropic’s latest earnings release is a timely “cold water wake-up call” to a market that had been captivated by AI fantasies. The massive operating costs and slowing growth hidden behind explosive revenue remind us that no matter how smart artificial intelligence is, it cannot escape the fundamental law of capitalism: “profitability.” The market now demands solid business stamina rather than technological splendor, and the success or failure of Anthropic’s IPO will be an important test bed for the global AI ecosystem to move to the next stage.

References

1. Anthropic Just Released Updated Numbers Ahead of Its Nov. IPO …
2. Anthropic’s growth slowed and costs jumped in the third quarter, updated IPO filing shows
3. Anthropic’s slowing growth could be the AI trade’s latest red flag
4. Anthropic IPO: Investors weigh growth, losses and risks - CNBC
5. Four takeaways from Anthropic’s potentially record-breaking stock market filing

6. [Jobs

   Anthropic](https://www.anthropic.com/careers/jobs)

7. What to Make of the Anthropic Warning
8. Anthropic growth strains financial systems, eyes internal tool development

9. [Anthropic raises $13B Series F at $183B valuation

   Anthropic](https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-raises-series-f-at-usd183b-post-money-valuation)

10. Anthropic Approaches $7B Run Rate in 2025, Outpaces…
11. Anthropic’s IPO filing shows explosive growth, risks and staggering costs