Anthropic's computing bills are eating a bigger share of its revenue

Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI tools, is spending more of every dollar it earns just to keep its AI running. In a new filing, it said computing took 58% of its revenue in the quarter ending September 30. The quarter before, that figure was 48%.

What changed

The filing updates paperwork Anthropic released last week as it moves toward a public stock offering. The earlier version only covered results through June 30. The new one adds the next three months.

Business was strong. Quarterly revenue reached $17 billion, up from $11.5 billion the quarter before. But the company's operating loss grew too, largely because of computing costs. Its total compute bill hit $10 billion for the quarter.

Why costs went up

Demand grew so fast that Anthropic had to scramble for more computing power. Of that $10 billion, $5.0 billion was bought on short-term deals. The filing says these cost significantly more than similar power bought under multi-year contracts.

Some of those deals are public. Anthropic has been paying SpaceX $1.25 billion a month for computing power. It also has multi-billion dollar deals with Nscale, Akamai and Volta. These are smaller providers, sometimes called neoclouds, that offer flexible terms at higher prices than the giant cloud companies.

• Revenue earned per dollar of computing peaked at just over 2x, then fell to 1.72x.
• Anthropic expects computing to stay its largest expense for the foreseeable future.
• Its plan to build its own computing base, called Anthropic Direct, is not expected to keep pace with demand.

Why it matters to you

If you use or pay for AI tools, this is a look at what sits behind them. They run on very expensive infrastructure. The filing does not say prices will change. But if that spending gets squeezed, prices and availability could shift.

TechCrunch, which reported the story, sees the margin drop as more of a blip than a lasting problem. It also calls these champagne problems. As long as revenue grows at nearly 50% a quarter, few investors are likely to worry much about high computing costs.

What happens next

The bigger risk is outside Anthropic's control. TechCrunch notes the data center buildout could slow over the next year if bond markets get nervous or local opposition grows. Either would make the computing picture messier. Anthropic has not said how it would respond to that. For now, its future, like that of other AI labs, depends on computing prices.