Anthropic appears to have found a path to profitability: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmarkman/2026/08/17/anthropic...

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combobyte 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Those numbers intentionally exclude the single largest operating expense that Anthropic has: model training. [1]

So yeah, if they stop training models forever, Anthropic will probably start making a profit... until someone else with better models comes along to eat their lunch.

[1] https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/2026091414/the-...

	▲	ahartmetz 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		In the discussion of a similar article, it was called PBBT - profit before bad things.
	▲	boc 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Or if model training is more of a rollercoaster, where spending gets you to the top of the hill where you create a massive internal model which can then build the next version of itself for cheaper and cheaper amounts relative to human R&D costs. If Anthropic is first over that hill, they can race far ahead.
	▲	freecodeio an hour ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		kind of puts it in 4K the reason behind "we must pace the frontier"
	▲	simianwords 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Maybe... just maybe companies find an equilibrium? Maybe companies reinvest in training because there's performance increase?

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stymaar 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They have found a path to “profitability” iif you define “profitable” in a way that makes every early stage start-up that has at least one paying customer as “profitable”. Literally any start-up has a COGS lower than their income, but that doesn't mean anything at actual profitability given that the rest of their expenses dwarfs it.

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dofm 27 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

These figures are EBBT.

Earnings Before Bad Things.

If an AI company can exclude the cost of training the new models they release every three months from the business of whether they are profitable, it would be shocking if they weren't profitable. And the figure is tiny compared to the valuation they appear to be seeking, and may only be positive because of a short term boost.

Steve Eisman said the other day that he suspects part of Anthropic's rush to get to IPO is that their third quarter figures are terrible.

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Eufrat 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I believe the entire basis of their profitable quarter was getting a discount on compute from Musk.

All these figures are so utterly weaselly. AAR is a made up measure to make them look good. If they cannot show GAAP numbers, they are hiding something. Full stop. While as private companies they are under no legal obligation to show us their books, their PR and intent to go public requires it.