Anthropic is expected to reach profitability for the first time since it was founded in 2021.
News AI Anthropic is reportedly about to have its first profitable quarter It’s on track to post $10.9 billion in revenue, according to The Wall Street Journal.
By Mariella Moon May 21, 2026 4:01 am EST Chesnot/Getty Images Anthropic is on track to post a revenue of $10.9 billion for the quarter ending in June, double the revenue it made for the first quarter, according to The Wall Street Journal . Out of that total, the company expects to post $559 million in operating profit, making it the company's first profitable quarter since it was founded in 2021 if it hits that target. The company reportedly revealed those figures to a group of investors for its current funding round, which could boost its valuation past OpenAI's.
Even though chances are high that it will reach profitability for the quarter, Anthropic doesn't expect to be profitable in the quarters that follow. The company is planning to spend more money on computing and other expenses as it grows its operations further. Anthropic used to lag behind its peers and wasn't quite as well-known as rivals like OpenAI, even though it sells its products to large enterprise customers. It has been steadily gaining popularity over the past months, however, with its chatbot Claude climbing to the top of the Apple App Store following the company's clash with the Defense Department.
The company made headlines earlier this year when its CEO, Dario Amodei (pictured above), said that Anthropic can't "in good conscience" comply with a Pentagon order to remove guardrails on its AI. Specifically, the company didn't want to remove its AI's safeguards around mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. As a result, the Defense Department labeled it a "supply chain risk," a designation typically reserved for companies from countries like China and Russia. President Trump also ordered federal agencies to stop using Claude . Anthropic is trying to find a way to be re-accepted by the US government, however, and some federal agencies are still using its products. The NSA, in particular, is reportedly using Claude Mythos Preview , the company's unreleased AI model for cyber defense.
It's worth noting that, OpenAI, which is perhaps the most well-known name in generative AI technology, has yet to reach profitability. The company doesn't expect to get there until 2029 or 2030. OpenAI is preparing to file for an initial public offering (IPO) and may go public as soon as September, The New York Times has just reported.
Bloomberg previously reported that Anthropic is also considering an IPO and could go public in October.
