DOMINANT ANGLE
Paris is dissecting Anthropic's prospectus from a financial angle: a meteoric rise, losses, and massive computing commitments, for a valuation that fluctuates between $1,500 and $2,000 billion.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
Revenue of $16.3 billion in the first half of 2026, compared to $1.1 billion a year earlier
- 02
Cloud provider commitments of $265 billion over twenty years as of late June; loss of $8.4 billion excluding a $72 billion accounting effect
- 03
Sought valuation between $1.5 trillion and $1.75 trillion according to the Financial Times, compared to $965 billion in May
ANALYSIS
Paris, October 27, 2026. The French press reports on the filing, on Monday, October 26, of Anthropic's S-1 form with the SEC, the "American stock market cop" according to La Tribune. The creator of the Claude model plans to list its Class A shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol "ANT", with a possible listing as early as mid-November 2026, led by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
Regarding valuation, La Tribune mentions a target of around $2,000 billion. Le Monde nuances: citing the Financial Times, it indicates that current shareholders are seeking between $1,500 and $1,750 billion, which is less than the $2,000 billion mentioned this summer. During its last capital increase, in May, Anthropic was valued at $965 billion.
The figures in the prospectus are striking: $16.3 billion in revenue in the first half of 2026, compared to $1.1 billion a year earlier, then $16.8 billion in the third quarter, up 45% from the previous quarter. However, Sud Ouest notes significant losses: an accounting effect related to the valuation of shares weighed $72 billion, but, with this effect removed, the loss still reaches $8.4 billion.
The regional daily emphasizes the cost of calculation: unlike Google, Meta, or SpaceX, Anthropic does not have cash flows from other activities, and its commitments to cloud providers totaled $265 billion over twenty years as of the end of June. Analyst Jacob Bourne (Emarketer) sees "the exorbitant costs of developing cutting-edge AI".
The risk section is also highlighted: nearly 100 of the 335 pages, excluding annexes, are dedicated to it. Sud Ouest notes that at no point does the group take into account the warnings from employees or former employees about the danger of AI to humanity, while admitting that its safeguards have already experienced failures.
Le Monde puts the event into a context of markets that "are showing signs of cracking" and judges that the 237,000 words of the text confirm what was already known, without the surprises of SpaceX's introduction in June. BFM Business, in its Tech Flash column, associates the operation with SpaceX's fundraising to buy NVIDIA chips.
SOURCES (4)
- Sud OuestMEDIUM
- La TribuneMEDIUM
- BFM BusinessMEDIUM
