Anthropic reported a $42 billion net loss in its initial public offering (IPO) prospectus, prompting a market analyst to state that the artificial intelligence (AI) firm is using existential risk warnings to prompt government intervention against open-source competitors.

Regulatory Push Against Open Source

Equity analyst at Porter and Company, Ross Hendricks, claims Anthropic’s warnings about AI ending humanity correlate directly with its financial struggles against cheaper alternatives.

Commenting on the leaked IPO prospectus, Hendricks noted that the company’s $42 billion net loss in 2025 occurred before Anthropic “started losing market share to dirt cheap open source models.”

Hendricks questioned the company’s motives for highlighting AI dangers to regulators, asking, “Anyone still wondering why the company is threatening to end humanity unless the government shuts down their competition?”

Reuters just released a sneak peak of Anthropic financials, showing the company reported a net loss of $42 billion in 2025 – and this is before it started losing market share to dirt cheap open source models

Anyone still wondering why the company is threatening to end humanity…

— Ross Hendricks (@Ross__Hendricks) September 28, 2026

Massive Losses and Revenue Risks

Despite the leaked prospectus revealing a net loss for 2025, institutional researcher Nicholas Mugalli, founder and CEO of World Trade Securities, clarified that $34 billion of this figure is a non-cash paper charge tied to stock conversion.

Still, the company recorded an $8 billion operating loss, spending $7.33 billion on compute costs to generate $4.59 billion in revenue in 2025.

Additionally, Mugalli highlighted concentration risks, noting that “two customers drive 24% of revenue and neither is locked into long term deals.”

Anthropic’s IPO prospectus leaked via Reuters, and the numbers are wild:

– $4.59B revenue in 2025 (up 1,088%)
$8B operating loss
– $42B net loss ($34B is a non cash paper charge tied to stock conversion)
– $7.33B spent on compute alone (58% of Opex)
– $518B committed to future… https://t.co/kWnlekfNVI pic.twitter.com/axdglfCjGK

— Nicholas Mugalli (@RealNickMugalli) September 29, 2026

These margins drew sharp criticism from EZ Primary Research CEO Ed Zitron, who called Anthropic a “total dog of a company.” Zitron pointed out that the company’s operating losses are worsening and questioned why the 2026 numbers were absent from the leaked prospectus.

Bahahahaha Anthropic is a total dog of a company. Spent $12.6bn to make $4.6bn in revenue in 2025, $7.33bn of which was compute costs. Operating loss of $8bn. Losses getting worse. Weird that Reuters doesn’t have the 2026 numbers from the prospectushttps://t.co/eWnHlfpCgF https://t.co/xZBY54VpoZ pic.twitter.com/kyLTeYf3uS

— Ed Zitron (@edzitron) September 29, 2026

IPO Timeline Doubts

While the company is aiming for a multi-trillion-dollar valuation after the midterm elections, some financial professionals warn against assuming an imminent IPO.

Jeff Park, Head of Alpha Strategies and Portfolio Manager at Bitwise Asset Management, stated that “The biggest mispriced event risk today is assuming Anthropic will successfully IPO this year”. Park cautioned investors that “intent is not the same thing as finality.”

I said this before and I’ll say it again

The biggest mispriced event risk today is assuming Anthropic will successfully IPO this year

As crypto investors know so well, intent is not the same thing as finality

— Jeff Park (@dgt10011) September 27, 2026

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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