Anthropic's $16.8B quarter draws skepticism over profits and IPO timing
As seen on the 24/7 Wall St. homepage on October 14, 2026.
Same thing as always.. what is their profit?
Anthropic's $16.8 billion quarter, up 50% from Q2, landed as a bull case and got picked apart anyway: 640 comments asking about profit, cash burn and off-balance-sheet compute commitments ahead of a possible IPO. The cost base is now the question.
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A 50% jump in revenue to $16.8 billion usually silences critics, but wallstreetbets trained its response on what the figure leaves out. The top-voted reply from DrGarrious cuts straight to it: "Same thing as always.. what is their profit?"
The thread's running concern is that the headline revenue number sits on top of a cost base that commenters argue is deliberately obscured, with training costs, compute infrastructure, and partner payouts treated as off-balance-sheet items. One commenter frames the Q2-to-Q3 surge as a classic squeeze play ahead of a possible IPO rather than evidence of a structurally sound business.
The IPO framing matters because it shapes how investors should read the growth rate. If the cost structure is as heavy as the thread suggests, the revenue jump reflects pricing pressure on customers rather than operating leverage, with several commenters pointing to large customers already seeking cheaper alternatives.
The community largely read the post author's bull case as an unanswered question. Until Anthropic discloses profit or cash burn figures alongside revenue, the debate on wallstreetbets is unlikely to resolve in either direction.