Secondary-market trades on Forge Global pushed Anthropic’s valuation to about $1 trillion, surpassing OpenAI’s roughly $880 billion price. The surge reflects scarce share supply, rapid revenue growth (from a $9 billion to $39 billion annual run rate), and partnerships with Amazon and Palantir.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman accused Anthropic of using scare tactics to hype its new Mythos cybersecurity model, likening it to selling a bomb shelter after building a bomb. He argued that fear-based marketing keeps AI tools in the hands of a select elite and noted that such hype is common across the industry.

New CRO Denise Dresser tells staff the AWS Bedrock partnership is driving massive enterprise demand while the long-term Microsoft tie-up has boxed OpenAI in. She also challenges Anthropic’s revenue reporting and compute capacity, urging the team to unite around the Amazon alliance and sharpen customer focus.

In a memo to investors, OpenAI says it plans to deploy 30 gigawatts of compute power by 2030, versus Anthropic’s expected 7–8 gigawatts by end of 2027, labeling its rival “compute constrained.” The note underscores OpenAI’s infrastructure edge, compounding efficiency gains, and race for dominance ahead of both companies’ potential IPOs.

OpenAI and Anthropic are approaching record IPOs but face enormous costs for AI model training. OpenAI expects a staggering $121 billion in computing expenses by 2028, leading to significant projected losses, while Anthropic anticipates similar challenges but on a smaller scale. Both companies are rapidly releasing new AI models, intensifying the competition and cost pressures.

Anthropic's AI tool, Claude, has gained significant traction among consumers, with paid subscriptions more than doubling this year. The growth coincides with a public feud with the Department of Defense and effective Super Bowl ads that positioned Claude as a safer alternative to competitors. Despite this success, Claude still trails behind ChatGPT in overall user numbers.

The article analyzes the unit economics of large language models (LLMs), focusing on the compute costs associated with training and inference. It discusses how companies like OpenAI and Anthropic manage their financial projections and cash flow, emphasizing the need for revenue growth or reduced training costs to achieve profitability.