> They seem to be reporting gross margin by excluding the cut that cloud providers take for hosting their models, and excluding R&D

The media is overstating what they're being leaked.

Anthropic is reporting traditional losses. It's also highlighting that operating figure, because it answers the question around what the business could look like in a steady-state and first-party-only mode.

They aren't claiming the profitable right now. But for an unprofitable company, having these sorts of metrics can give you a sense around when they will become profitable and what it will take. (Plenty of people were doubting that AI makes money on inference not too long ago.)