Anthropic claims $45B annualized revenue

Anthropic’s latest revenue claims are built on two different kinds of numbers, and that distinction matters. Crypto Briefing reported on May 22 that Anthropic’s annualized revenue run rate had reached $30 billion in April and was targeting $45 billion by late second quarter, ahead of OpenAI’s reported $25 billion run rate. The other benchmark came from quarterly revenue. The Information reported that OpenAI generated about $5.7 billion in first-quarter revenue, compared with Anthropic’s $4.8 billion, while Techloy said Anthropic told investors it expected $10.9 billion in second-quarter revenue. ### How can Anthropic be “ahead” if OpenAI made more money in the latest quarter? (cryptobriefing.com) OpenAI’s reported lead refers to actual first-quarter revenue, while Anthropic’s headline figure refers to an annualized run rate, which extrapolates a recent monthly pace over 12 months. Those are not the same metric. (theinformation.com) VentureBeat reported on May 8 that Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei said the company had crossed a $30 billion annualized revenue run rate by April after what he described as 80-fold annualized growth in the first quarter. VentureBeat added that run-rate figures are snapshots, not full-year GAAP revenue. (theinformation.com) ### Where does the $45 billion figure come from? Crypto Briefing said Anthropic’s run rate was $30 billion in April 2026 and that projections were targeting $45 billion by late second quarter. The report framed that as surpassing OpenAI’s $25 billion annualized revenue figure cited in earlier reporting. The broader set of reports points to the same sequence: Anthropic at $30 billion annualized by April, OpenAI at roughly $25 billion annualized earlier in 2026, and Anthropic presenting investors with a much higher near-term revenue projection. (venturebeat.com) ### What is driving Anthropic’s growth? Dario Amodei said at Anthropic’s Code with Claude developer conference that the company had planned for 10-fold growth per year but saw 80-fold annualized growth in the first quarter, which he said created compute strain. (cryptobriefing.com) VentureBeat reported that enterprise demand was the main driver. Techloy reported that Anthropic’s projected jump to $10.9 billion in second-quarter revenue was driven primarily by enterprise customers using Claude for business applications. VentureBeat separately reported that Claude Code reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate within six months of launch and had more than $2.5 billion in run-rate revenue by February. (venturebeat.com) ### How does this fit with the funding race? Anthropic said on February 12 that it raised $30 billion in Series G funding at a $380 billion post-money valuation. CNBC reported on April 29 that Anthropic was in talks to raise funds at a $900 billion valuation, and Bloomberg reported on May 23 that a round topping $30 billion at a valuation above $900 billion could close as soon as next week. (techloy.com) OpenAI said on March 31 that it closed a $122 billion funding round at an $852 billion post-money valuation to expand compute and meet demand for ChatGPT, Codex and enterprise AI. ### What should readers watch next? The next concrete datapoint is Anthropic’s second-quarter result. CNBC, citing a person familiar with the matter, said Anthropic generated $4.8 billion in the first quarter and is targeting $10.9 billion in the second quarter, which would be its first profitable quarter if reached. (anthropic.com) (openai.com) Bloomberg said Anthropic’s new financing could close as soon as the week of May 25. That round, if completed, would give investors another fresh marker for how private markets are pricing Anthropic’s revenue claims against OpenAI’s. (bloomberg.com) (cnbc.com)