Anthropic Achieves Profitability: OpenAI Under Pressure

Anthropic Achieves Profitability: OpenAI Under Pressure

Anthropic, the startup behind the AI Claude, is poised to reach a major milestone by becoming profitable for the first time. This news is a significant blow to OpenAI, its main competitor.

In February, Anthropic was blacklisted by the White House after refusing to allow Claude to be used by the Pentagon. Despite this challenging situation, the company is showing impressive performance with expected revenue of $10.9 billion for the second quarter of 2026, more than double the $4.8 billion achieved the previous year. Its operating profit is projected to reach $559 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Rapid Growth

Recently, Anthropic had anticipated reaching profitability by 2028. However, its growth has exceeded its own expectations, comparable to that of Zoom during the pandemic or Google and Facebook before their IPOs.

This success is driven by a growing demand for its coding tools and Claude's capabilities, as well as a stricter management approach than OpenAI. Anthropic benefits from a primarily professional user base, thereby avoiding the costs associated with free ChatGPT users. In the second quarter, it is expected to spend only 56 cents on computing power for every dollar earned, down from 71 cents previously.

Moreover, the company primarily uses chips from Google and Amazon, which are less expensive than those from NVIDIA, and has adopted a cautious spending strategy. A recent partnership with SpaceX has granted it access to Colossus, Elon Musk's data center, an unlikely deal for OpenAI due to the tensions between Sam Altman and Elon Musk.

A Strong Signal for Investors

Despite this advancement, Anthropic does not guarantee it will remain profitable throughout the year, as its infrastructure needs are significant. However, achieving profitability while preparing for its IPO is a strong signal for investors, especially as it is set to raise funds that could value it beyond OpenAI.

The rivalry between the two companies is marked by different accounting approaches. Anthropic includes revenue from sales through its cloud partners, unlike OpenAI, which accuses the startup of inflating its figures. Anthropic defends its method as compliant with accounting standards. This divergence highlights the tensions in this fierce competition.