Anthropic has informed its investors that it will achieve profitability this quarter, a move aimed at easing concerns about the rapid cash burn typical of frontier AI companies as it gears up for a massive initial public offering. Several people familiar with the matter say the company has told a small group of shareholders that its adjusted operating profit will be positive for the second consecutive quarter, a metric that excludes costs such as equity-based compensation. Two insiders note that before accounting for revenue-sharing payments to distribution partners like Amazon and model training expenses, Anthropic's gross margin exceeds 80%.

For the five-year-old company preparing to go public, sustaining profitability marks a significant milestone. One source says Anthropic has chosen the Nasdaq for its listing, with the IPO valuation potentially reaching $2 trillion or higher. The company declined to comment on the matter. The developer of the Claude large language model had originally planned to release its prospectus last week, but according to people familiar with the process, it has only circulated the documents to a select group of investors, opting to field their questions first before making it public.

The listing comes at a sensitive time for the AI industry, characterized by rapid technological advances alongside widespread public concern over the technology's impact on the environment, employment, and the future of humanity. On Saturday, the CEO of the startup valued at $965 billion, Dario Amodei, called on the AI sector to slow the pace of technological development. Prospective investors now face two key questions: the implications of intense scrutiny on AI safety, and the fact that this business model has yet to be tested in public markets.

Anthropic achieved adjusted operating profit in the second quarter, with revenue surging 14-fold year-over-year to $11.5 billion. By the end of July, its annualized revenue had reached $65 billion, up from $9 billion at the end of last year. Joe Brookhart, an AI lab analyst at SemiAnalysis, notes, "If Anthropic can sustain this level of margin and growth, rivals will find it extremely difficult to compete, given its access to massive computing resources." He adds that investors project Anthropic's full-year annualized revenue to hit $120 billion, and by the end of 2027, that figure could nearly triple.

However, growing calls within the industry to slow down or even halt AI development are casting uncertainty over the company's growth trajectory. Slowing research could save the company billions in training costs for new models, but it would also give competitors a chance to close the gap. In an essay published on Saturday, Amodei argued that given the alarm raised by the powerful capabilities of new models, the industry "must slow the rate at which we increase AI model capabilities." OpenAI chief Sam Altman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have also endorsed this call. Altman confirmed on Saturday that while OpenAI confidentially filed for an IPO in June, the company will remain private this year, stating that 2026 is not the right time for a public listing due to AI safety considerations.

Sources say employees at rival labs have been in close communication over the past few weeks to establish AI safety controls. Such cross-company private discussions are rare in an industry marked by fierce competition. The catalysts for these behind-the-scenes talks include recent security breaches, growing unease among researchers about the capabilities of next-generation AI models, and the belief that the Trump administration is unlikely to put the brakes on AI development. One employee at a frontier AI lab remarks, "This is something our industry has to manage on its own." Insiders say it was this private dialogue that laid the groundwork for Altman and Amodei's synchronized public statements this week supporting a slowdown in AI research. Media reports have previously indicated that Anthropic will list on the Nasdaq.