Key facts
- Anthropic's compute bill reached $10 billion for the quarter, including $5.0 billion under short-term commitments, per the filing.
- The filing said short-term compute currently costs significantly more than comparable compute under multi-year commitments.
- Anthropic has been paying SpaceX $1.25 billion a month for compute, alongside multi-billion dollar deals with Nscale, Akamai and Volta.
- Revenue per dollar spent on compute peaked at just over 2x in the quarter before falling back to 1.72x, per a chart in the filing.
- Anthropic said it is building its own compute base under a project it calls Anthropic Direct.
Anthropic disclosed on Monday that compute costs consumed 58% of its revenue in the quarter ended September 30, up from 48% in the prior quarter, in an update to the S-1 it released the previous week. The earlier filing covered financial results only through June 30; the update extended disclosures by one quarter.
Revenue reached $17 billion, up from $11.5 billion in the previous quarter, while the operating loss grew, which the report attributed in large part to rising compute costs. The company's compute bill reached $10 billion for the quarter, including $5.0 billion of compute under short-term commitments, which the filing said currently costs significantly more than comparable compute procured under multi-year commitments.
A chart in the filing tracking revenue for every dollar spent on compute showed the ratio rising steadily since the start of 2025, peaking at just over 2x in the quarter before falling back to 1.72x. The report said the shift suggested demand grew fast enough that Anthropic paid higher rates for flexible capacity.
Anthropic has been paying SpaceX $1.25 billion a month for compute, alongside multi-billion dollar deals with Nscale, Akamai and Volta, which the report described as neoclouds, smaller providers offering more flexible compute deals at higher rates than hyperscalers.
The filing said: "We expect compute and infrastructure expenses to increase in absolute dollars and remain our largest operating expense for the foreseeable future as additional committed compute becomes available to us under multi-year arrangements with CSPs, and as we continue to invest in additional compute." The report said Anthropic is also building its own compute base under a project it calls Anthropic Direct, but that demand growth means those efforts will not keep pace and neoclouds will remain its best option.