The report
Anthropic has told investors it expects to report positive adjusted operating income for the quarter ending 30 September, which would be its second profitable quarter in a row, the Financial Times reported on 13 September, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Reuters said it could not immediately verify the report, and Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company also told investors that its gross margins exceed 80%, according to the report. That figure is calculated before revenue shared with distribution partners and before the cost of training AI models.
What the numbers leave out
Both exclusions matter. Anthropic sells Claude directly and through cloud partners, and TECHi named Amazon and Google among those whose revenue share is not deducted. Leaving out training costs means the margin describes the economics of serving today’s models, not of building the next one.
“Adjusted” operating income is also a measure the company defines itself rather than a standard accounting line, and the reports do not say which costs Anthropic adjusts out. The quarter being described still has more than two weeks to run, so this is a forecast given to investors, not a result.
The quarter before
Anthropic’s first profitable quarter was April to June. Revenue in that quarter passed $11.5bn, up from $787m a year earlier and from $4.73bn in the first three months of 2026, according to The Next Web, which followed Bloomberg’s reporting from documents it had reviewed. Those figures were preliminary and could be revised.
A company whose revenue more than doubled in a quarter and turned an operating profit at the same time is making a different case to investors from the rest of the sector, which has mostly asked to be valued on annualised run rates.
Ahead of a listing
The disclosure comes as Anthropic prepares to go public. Business Insider reported on 13 September that the company has chosen Nasdaq and hopes to list in October. Anthropic is working towards raising up to $100bn at a valuation of about $2tn, and Nvidia is in talks to invest as much as $10bn as an anchor, TECHi reported, summarising earlier Reuters reporting. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are among the banks involved.
For prospective shareholders, a second quarter of operating profit would be the difference between a single good quarter and a trend. It also sets Anthropic apart from OpenAI, whose chief executive Sam Altman told Fortune on 12 September that OpenAI would not go public this year.
What to watch
The registration statement. When Anthropic makes its IPO filing public, revenue, operating income and margins will appear in audited form for the first time, along with the definitions behind “adjusted”. Until then, every figure in this story comes from people briefing reporters, and none of it has been confirmed by the company.
