The key facts
- Anthropic cannot secure enough cloud capacity from AWS, Google, and Microsoft, which view it as a competitor, according to an S-1 leak reported by WSJ
- The company may spend more than $750 billion on cloud contracts, with some deals still under negotiation
- Loss for the first half of the year was $80.7 billion on revenue of $16.3 billion; third-quarter revenue reached $16.8 billion (+45% quarter-over-quarter), with the IPO planned for November
Cloud Capacity Shortage
Anthropic is struggling to obtain a sufficient amount of cloud capacity from AWS, Google, and Microsoft, which increasingly view the maker of Claude as a competitor rather than a customer. This is evidenced by a leak of the S-1 document obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
Scale of Spending and Alternative Solutions
The leak adds to data published by Reuters and the Financial Times at the end of September: Anthropic believes it may spend more than $750 billion on cloud contracts, some of which are still in the negotiation stage. Even that is not enough — the company is renting its own data centers and working with third-party operators, but fears that they have a 'limited track record,' which may make them less reliable than hyperscale providers.
Financial Performance and Risks
The enormous spending is accompanied by a loss of $80.7 billion for the first half of the year on revenue of $16.3 billion for the same period. According to WSJ, just two clients account for about a fifth of sales. The document also repeats previously published warnings about catastrophic risks: Anthropic notes that it could be held liable for damages from malicious AI behavior in amounts exceeding available insurance coverage.
IPO Preparations
Last week, the company told potential investors that revenue for the third quarter alone reached $16.8 billion — a 45% increase compared to the previous quarter. According to available information, Anthropic is targeting an IPO in November. TechCrunch notes that the company did not respond to a request for comment.
