Anthropic’s S-1 embodies all the contradictions of the AI boom, and the questions about what happens next

Anthropic’s go-public filing reads like a mood swing in document form. On one page, AI is described as “one of the most consequential technologies in human history,” the start of an “age of miracles.” On another, the company says the same technology may bring “catastrophic” risks to society. Both claims sit in the same S-1, and Anthropic doesn’t seem interested in pretending that tension away.

The financials are no less dramatic. Anthropic reported $16.29 billion in revenue for the first half of 2026, a figure that reflects strong demand for Claude. Right next to it: an $80.7 billion net loss for the six months ending in June 2026. The filing says that red ink includes a huge accounting charge tied to convertible notes, but the bottom line is still the bottom line. If this company lists, it could become the largest IPO ever — and one of the biggest losses ever recorded by a public or nearly public company.

And then there’s compute, the force that seems to organize everything around the business. The word appears more than 580 times in the filing. Anthropic says it expects to buy compute from SpaceX worth up to $120.5 billion through 2029. It also says it spent about $9.7 billion on compute in the first half of this year just for model R&D, and that it may spend as much as $567 billion overall.

The filing also makes a point that’s easy to miss amid the giant numbers: AI still has to be sold. Anthropic spent more than $3 billion on marketing in the first half of 2026, and the company says it has limited experience building a direct sales force. It warns that if its marketing programs miss the mark, sales and revenue could grow more slowly than expected.

That is the real oddity here. A company valued like a future giant is still describing itself as not fully grown. The filing doesn’t just expose the scale of the AI boom; it shows how dependent that boom is on cash, compute, and the old-fashioned work of convincing customers to pay up.