# Anthropic Adoption Rose as AI Spending Among Top Spenders Fell By John Kim Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/33543 Published: 2026-10-16T22:47:53.000Z Updated: 2026-10-16T22:47:53.000Z Section: Business > Anthropic's third-quarter revenue rose 45% from the prior quarter, while investors discussed a $1.5 trillion offering valuation at an Oct. 14 meeting. 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. ## Links in this article - [investor discussion around a $1.5 trillion valuation](https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/33201) - [earlier estimate](https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/32365)