According to foreign media The Information, two people involved in the discussion revealed that some of the profitability indicators of American AI unicorn Anthropic are improving. This financial performance has prompted some investors to extend an "olive branch": If Anthropic starts financing, they are willing toValuation of more than US$100 billion (approximately RMB 718.02 billion)Make an investment.
Anthropic management revealed to investors that it sells its AI models and Claude chatbot products directly to customers.Gross profit margin is about 60%, and predicts that Anthropic’s revenue in 2027 is expected to reachUS$35 billion (approximately RMB 251.31 billion).
According to foreign media The Information, OpenAI predicted at the beginning of this year that its gross profit margin will reach48%, to be reached by 202970%, a conservative estimate of itsRevenue in 2027 will be US$12 billion (approximately RMB 86.16 billion). Judging from the forecast data, the gap between Anthropic and OpenAI is gradually narrowing.
1. The gross profit margin reaches 60%, but the cloud service business still loses 30%
According to reports, Anthropic recently informed investors that its gross profit margin from selling AI models and Claude chatbot products directly to customers is approximately60%, and heading towards70%Move forward. This gross profit margin figure usually refers to the percentage of profit after deducting server costs and customer support fees. Those gross margins will fluctuate depending on how efficiently the company plans to use computing resources, people familiar with the matter explained.
Earlier this year, Anthropic sold Claude models through Amazon Cloud Services and Google Cloud at a gross profit margin of-30%, speculation may be that the reason may be that Amazon and Google take a considerable cut when reselling Anthropic models to cloud customers.
However, revenue generated through cloud service providers may only account for a minority of Anthropic’s total revenue. By the end of 2024, itsAbout 70% of revenue comes from direct sales. It is not yet clear the specific proportion of direct sales revenue, but the latest disclosed information shows that Anthropic’s overall gross profit margin may remain at50%-55%, the same as the end of 2023.
For comparison, OpenAI predicted at the beginning of this year that the gross profit margin in 2025 would be48%, and is expected to increase steadily and reach70%. It's unclear whether the two companies calculate gross profit margins in the same way.
It is worth noting that the gross profit margins of Anthropic and OpenAI do not reflect the billions of dollars in capital and manpower they invest in AI research and development every year, and these expenses are much higher than traditional software companies.
Anthropic told investors as it raised first-quarter funding that it would consumeUS$3 billion (approximately RMB 21.54 billion)cash, while forecasting that its revenue in 2026 is expected to grow rapidly toUS$12 billion (approximately RMB 86.16 billion).
Earlier this year, OpenAI predicted that this year it would consume approx.US$6.8 billion (approximately RMB 48.83 billion)Cash, due next yearUS$7.6 billion (approximately RMB 54.57 billion), the revenue for the same period was respectively13 billion (approximately RMB 93.34 billion)andUS$29 billion (approximately RMB 208.23 billion).
According to financial disclosures, OpenAI's revenue is several times that of Anthropic, but its cash burn is significantly lower. overall,OpenAI’s operational efficiency is higher than Anthropic’s.
2. Revenue increased 4 times in the first half of the year, and revenue is forecast to hit US$35 billion in 2027
Anthropic management predicts that the company’s revenue in 2027 is expected to reachUS$35 billion (approximately RMB 251.31 billion), further narrowing the gap with OpenAI. Under a relatively conservative scenario, OpenAI expects revenue in 2027 to beUS$12 billion (approximately RMB 86.16 billion).
▲Anthropic revenue forecast (Source: The Information)
Investors said that if Anthropic starts financing, they are willing to pay more thanUS$100 billion (approximately RMB 718.02 billion)investment. This figure is higher than that announced in the financing four months ago.US$58 billion (approximately RMB 416.45 billion)Valuation has nearly doubled.
The company raised an equity round in March, one of the people said.US$3.5 billion (approximately RMB 25.13 billion), but it has previously been revealed to some investors that the total planned financing this year isUS$5.5 billion (approximately RMB 39.49 billion), has recently opened some financial data to specific investors.
If calculated based on a valuation of US$100 billion (approximately RMB 718.02 billion), Anthropic's forward price-to-sales ratio will reach 25 times. For comparison, when OpenAI negotiated financing with SoftBank in January this year, its pre-money valuation was US$26 billion (approximately RMB 186.69 billion), corresponding to a forward price-to-sales ratio of approximately 43 times. At that time, annualized revenue was approximately US$6 billion (approximately RMB 43.08 billion), which has now exceeded US$10 billion (approximately RMB 718.02 billion).
Such a "bold" prediction is not groundless. In the first half of this year, Anthropic’s revenue achieved4 timesGrowth, calculated based on annualized revenue in the most recent single month, has exceeded4 billion US dollars (approximately RMB 28.72 billion).
Anthropic revealed to some investors that Claude Code, its programming assistant launched in May, has been downloaded for3 million times, an increase since June6 times. Anthropic expects the product will bringOver 200 million US dollars (approximately RMB 1.44 billion)Annualized income, average monthly income is US$16.7 million (approximately RMB 120 million).
Part of Anthropic's growth also stems from its role in empowering emerging AI startups. The core technology of its main competitor Cursor is also based on the Anthropic model, and its business expansion indirectly promotes Anthropic's revenue growth.
Although the research and development costs of AI models are high, investors are somewhat relieved that the model running costs shown by OpenAI and Anthropic are on a downward trend due to algorithm improvements and increased AI chip usage efficiency. However, investors are currently paying more attention to the amazing revenue growth of the two companies. Both parties are expected to significantly exceed the optimistic revenue targets set at the beginning of the year.
Conclusion: Capital is optimistic about the programming task automation market
Companies focused on automating programming tasks are accelerating the introduction of intelligent agents that can handle complex, long-term programming tasks. Researchers from many institutions, including OpenAI, believe that programming automation is a key step in developing general AI.
More than one technology tycoon in Silicon Valley has mentioned in public that after intelligent agents replace the work of AI R&D personnel on a large scale, R&D personnel will have more time to focus on more creative work, and this will also lay a technical foundation for intelligent agents to automatically handle other tasks with higher economic value.
Foreign media have evaluated that the automation of programming tasks is currently the most successful commercial application of large language models, and investors’ optimistic expectations for Anthropic also confirm this.