Anthropic Adoption Rose as AI Spending Among Top Spenders Fell

Anthropic subscriptions or token purchases were recorded at 43.8% of businesses in a U.S. spending sample in August, while per-employee AI spending fell among the sample's top spenders.

That share rose 0.34 percentage point from July. Among the top 1% of AI spenders in the sample, median spending per employee fell 9.7% to $7,205 in August from $7,976 in July. The first measure tracks businesses with an Anthropic subscription or token purchase; the second captures median AI spending among the heaviest spenders.

The top-spender estimate is volatile and subject to revision. An effective price measure also declined: the cost per million tokens stood at $0.68 on Sept. 9, down 41% from a $1.15 peak in March.

Separately, Anthropic, the developer of Claude, reported third-quarter revenue of $16.8 billion to prospective IPO investors at an Oct. 14 meeting, up 45% from $11.6 billion in the second quarter. The company also reported an adjusted profit for the quarter.

Some investors at the meeting discussed an offering valuation near $1.5 trillion, below the roughly $2 trillion previously expected for a November share sale. The investor discussion around a $1.5 trillion valuation was distinct from a forecast by a longtime Anthropic backer, who projected a $1.8 trillion IPO valuation and a $2.3 trillion to $2.4 trillion value once shares begin trading. That post-listing estimate would exceed SpaceX's $2.1 trillion market capitalization at the close of its first trading day. The backer's earlier estimate was an investor forecast, not an announced offer price.

Anthropic's latest publicly announced private valuation was $965 billion, set in a $65 billion funding round announced May 28. The company submitted a confidential draft S-1 on June 1; at the time, it had not determined how many shares it would offer or at what price.