Anthropic's IPO filing reveals $1.7 billion quarterly personnel bill, averaging $107,000 per employee monthly

Anthropic's recent IPO filing has revealed staggering personnel costs, with the company spending over $1.7 billion on employee-related expenses between July and September. With a workforce of 5,300 employees, this amounts to an average of $322,000 per person over the three-month period, or $107,300 per employee per month. The majority of these costs, $1.1 billion, were attributed to stock-based compensation expenses, reflecting the value of company shares employees earn as part of their compensation package.

Notably, while these figures appear substantial, personnel costs have been gradually decreasing as a percentage of total revenue. In 2023, Anthropic spent more than twice as much on personnel as it brought in from customers, but in the first nine months of 2026, personnel expenses accounted for only 15% of the company's reported $33.2 billion in revenue.

The company's recent filing for what could be the largest IPO ever indicates that certain restricted stock units come with conditions tied to an event like an IPO. Had Anthropic completed its IPO on September 30, 2026, a single $8.2 billion stock-based compensation charge would have exceeded the $4.86 billion in personnel expenses reported for the first nine months of 2026. The company expects to recognize additional $24.1 billion in expenses for these awards over a weighted-average period of about two years.

Anthropic operates in a highly competitive AI landscape, facing strong competition from industry giants like Meta and OpenAI. Last year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly offered some Meta employees $100 million signing bonuses to entice them to leave. Despite this competitive pressure, Anthropic has managed to grow its workforce fivefold since the end of 2024, but still lags far behind Meta in terms of employee count, which currently stands at around 67,000 people.