Anthropic has just delivered one of the clearest signs yet that the battle for the AI market is no longer simply about which company has the biggest chatbot. The Claude creator's annual revenue run rate passed $65 billion (£48.3 billion) by the end of July, according to a person familiar with the matter, putting the company well ahead of OpenAI's latest publicly reported annualised revenue figure.
Anthropic's number has risen from $47 billion (£34.9 billion) in May and roughly $9 billion (£6.7 billion) at the end of 2025.
The speed of that increase is remarkable, particularly as Anthropic prepares for a potential public listing later this year. OpenAI still has an enormous advantage through ChatGPT, which OpenAI says has 900 million weekly users, while its business is expanding rapidly across consumers and enterprises.
Yet Anthropic's latest figures show that Claude is becoming a serious commercial rival, particularly among developers and businesses. The question for Sam Altman is no longer whether Anthropic can compete, but how quickly it can close the gap across the AI market.
Anthropic's Revenue Growth Changes The Competition
Anthropic's latest figure needs some context because a revenue run rate is not the same as revenue already earned over a full year. It takes the company's current sales pace and projects what annual performance would look like if that pace continued.
Even with that distinction, the trajectory is difficult to ignore.
Anthropic's annual revenue run rate reached more than $65 billion (£48.3 billion) at the end of July, up from $47 billion (£34.9 billion) in May and around $9 billion (£6.7 billion) at the end of 2025.
The latest figure was shared with investors as part of the company's ongoing financial updates, according to a person familiar with the matter. Bloomberg first reported the development, while Reuters subsequently reported the figure.
That means Anthropic has moved from a $9 billion (£6.7 billion) annualised pace at the end of 2025 to more than $65 billion (£48.3 billion) only months later. The company's growth is being helped by Claude's popularity among developers, with its coding agent gaining traction and bringing in enterprise customers.
This is important because the AI market is increasingly being divided between consumer use and business use. ChatGPT remains the dominant consumer-facing name, but Anthropic has built a particularly strong position in enterprise AI and coding.
Anthropic's ambitions also extend well beyond its current revenue pace. Reuters reported on Friday that the company is projecting 2028 revenue of roughly $190 billion to $200 billion (£141.2 billion to £148.6 billion). Those forecasts are expected to play an important role in determining the valuation investors place on the company if it proceeds with an IPO.
The scale of that projection tells investors what Anthropic believes its business could become, rather than simply where it stands today. Reuters reported that bankers and investors are using revenue multiples based on future forecasts when considering the company's potential valuation.
Anthropic was already valued at $965 billion (£717.0 billion) in May after raising $65 billion (£48.3 billion) in its Series H funding round.
That valuation was more than double its $380 billion (£282.3 billion) valuation from February and was higher than OpenAI's then valuation of $852 billion (£633.0 billion).
The numbers make one thing clear: investors are no longer treating Anthropic as a secondary AI company chasing OpenAI. It is being valued and funded as one of the companies expected to shape the next stage of the industry.
OpenAI Still Has A Huge Advantage
The headline comparison makes Anthropic's $65 billion (£48.3 billion) run rate look particularly uncomfortable for OpenAI, but it does not mean ChatGPT has suddenly fallen behind.
OpenAI's latest annualised revenue figure publicly reported by Reuters came at the end of February, when its run rate had passed $25 billion (£18.6 billion). That was already up from $21.4 billion (£15.9 billion) at the end of 2025. The figure was reported by The Information and could not be independently verified by Reuters.
The problem for a direct comparison is that OpenAI's $25 billion (£18.6 billion) figure is from February, while Anthropic's latest number is from the end of July. There is therefore no like-for-like August comparison showing exactly where both companies stand today.
Still, Anthropic's current figure is more than twice OpenAI's latest publicly reported annualised revenue.
OpenAI also has a huge consumer distribution advantage that Anthropic cannot simply replicate overnight. OpenAI said in April that ChatGPT had 900 million weekly users, while enterprise revenue accounted for more than 40% of its revenue and was on track to reach parity with consumer revenue by the end of 2026. The company also said Codex had reached three million weekly active users at the time.
That gives Sam Altman something Anthropic's revenue figures alone do not capture: an enormous existing user base.
ChatGPT is not just a chatbot anymore. OpenAI has been pushing further into coding, workplace tools, enterprise services, agents and APIs. In June, OpenAI said Codex had more than five million weekly active users, with knowledge workers accounting for about 20% of users and growing faster than developers.
OpenAI also says ChatGPT has more than 800 million weekly active users in its research material, although its April enterprise announcement gave the more recent 900 million figure.
Should Sam Altman Be Worried?
Yes, but not because Anthropic has already overtaken OpenAI in every measure.
The more immediate concern is the speed at which Anthropic is closing the commercial gap. Going from around $9 billion (£6.7 billion) in annualised revenue at the end of 2025 to more than $65 billion (£48.3 billion) by the end of July represents a dramatic acceleration. Reuters reported that Anthropic's revenue run rate had grown more than tenfold annually in each of the three years through early 2026.
That kind of growth creates pressure on OpenAI because the companies are increasingly chasing the same customers.
Anthropic's Claude coding agent is helping it win developers, while enterprise customers are providing a steady source of revenue. OpenAI is also targeting enterprise customers aggressively, with the company saying that business revenue already accounts for more than 40% of its total revenue.
The IPO race could make the competition even more intense.
Anthropic confidentially filed for an IPO earlier this year, while OpenAI is also preparing for a possible public listing. Reuters reported in May that OpenAI had been valued at $852 billion (£633.0 billion), with a potential IPO valuation of around $1 trillion (£743.0 billion) being discussed.
Anthropic's May valuation of $965 billion (£717.0 billion) therefore put it ahead of OpenAI on private-market valuation, even before its latest $65 billion (£48.3 billion) revenue run rate was reported.
That does not mean Anthropic is worth more simply because its revenue run rate is higher. The two companies have different customer mixes, costs, products and expectations about future growth. Anthropic is also spending heavily on computing capacity, model training, inference and hiring.
Reuters reported that the company is still operating with thin margins, although it projected a $559 million (£415.4 million) operating profit in the second quarter of 2026 on revenue of at least $10.9 billion (£8.1 billion).
