Anthropic's Gross Margin Rocketed to 85% From 12% in a Year, but the S-1 Warns It Won't Last

Anthropic revealed its first full financials ahead of its planned IPO in its S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company's revenue skyrocketed, growing roughly 14-fold in a year, from $1.2 billion in the first half of 2025 to $16.3 billion in the first half of 2026. However, its gross margin surged from a thin 12% to an impressive 85%, despite the fact that the cost of revenue, which includes model training costs, sales and marketing fees, and research and development expenses, rose from $1 billion to $2.4 billion.

This led to an operating margin of just 8% in Q2 2026, which the company warned could fluctuate over time due to its compute expenses and the timing of those expenses. Anthropic has substantial compute contracts, with $417 billion in future minimum payment obligations and another $125 billion to $150 billion in additional capacity projected.

While revenue is growing quickly, customer spending is largely consumption-based and not tied to long-term commitments, leaving the company's compute costs locked in while revenue isn't. The AI lab's IPO ranks among the 10 largest, with a potential valuation of $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion and a stock debut valuation of about 63 times sales.