How much is Anthropic really worth?
How much is something worth? That is a question we ask every single day, and it is essentially the question that guides our lives. In our day-to-day life, we have to ask ourselves, “Is sleeping in worth more than going to the gym?”, “Is going out to eat worth the time and energy I would've spent cooking dinner?”, and “Is it worth it to spend a few more hours at work instead of coming home and enjoying my evening?” The worth or value we place on each of these decisions comes down to the values and principles we have been taught over the course of our lives.
Lately, the companies under the most scrutiny for their value are AI companies: companies that sell products using AI, companies that sell AI services, and the large AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Just today, Anthropic released its S-1, the initial registration document a company must file with the SEC before its Initial Public Offering. In it, the company provides key financial information about itself.
I didn't bother reading the entire document, but Greg Isenberg had some key insights that I would like to pass on. Anthropic brings in $6.6M in revenue per employee, and in the first six months of 2026, the company did $16.3 billion in revenue. That is absolutely insane! But how insane is it? Is $16.3 billion actually a lot of money? For you or me, it may be, but Walmart has $713.2 billion in annual revenue, and Amazon tops it with $716.9 billion. So, what will Anthropic's market cap be? Some are estimating $2 trillion. Does that even make sense? Walmart, with 22x the annual revenue of Anthropic, is only valued at $950 billion. When will we realize that we have gone too far and that we are throwing money at things a little too fast?
At the end of all these questions, we have to understand what this really means, which is a question of its own. On a podcast with Steven Bartlett that came out today, Mark Cuban talked about how the value of public companies fluctuates way more than it used to. This could be due to how fast information travels, and to people's fear of missing out, or their rush to get out, when a company's stock spikes or drops. Overall, it is an interesting time to be alive and to choose how to invest. Even if you are not an avid investor, keeping an eye on what's happening in the economy is crucial to everyday living.