Anthropic's IPO path faces scrutiny over rising compute costs

New financial disclosures from Anthropic reveal that while the company achieved strong quarterly revenue of $17 billion, its operating losses increased, largely due to escalating compute expenses. The updated filing, covering results through September 30, 2026, showed that compute accounted for 58% of revenue in the latest quarter, a rise from 48% the prior quarter. This cost pressure is evident in the company's spending, which reached $10 billion for the quarter. This included $5.0 billion spent on short-term commitments, which cost significantly more than compute secured via multi-year agreements. Anthropic is currently paying SpaceX $1.25 billion monthly, alongside major deals with Nscale, Akamai, and Volta, which are described as neoclouds. Despite efforts like the internal project Anthropic Direct, the company expects infrastructure expenses to remain its largest operating cost. While high revenue growth may mask the issue for investors, the reliance on external, high-cost compute sources highlights the vulnerability of major AI labs to infrastructure market fluctuations.