Anthropic's Cash Reserves Outstrip Nearly Every U.S. Company Ahead of IPO

Anthropic holds more cash than almost any other company in the United States, according to a securities filing the artificial intelligence lab submitted on Monday.

The S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows the company, which is nearly six years old, had $112.4 billion in cash and another $19.3 billion in short-term investments as of June 30. That adds up to $131.7 billion, based on data compiled by CNBC and S&P Capital IQ.

Among non-bank U.S. companies, only Berkshire Hathaway and Alphabet held more. At midyear, Anthropic's total exceeded the cash positions of Amazon, SpaceX, Meta and Microsoft. It was also larger than the combined holdings of Nvidia and Apple.

The figure could grow considerably. Reports suggest the company's initial public offering could raise more than $100 billion, which might push its cash above $230 billion, depending on the final size. Anthropic has not disclosed specifics on the offering. The filing says existing investors will also sell shares in the IPO, so the company will not receive all of the proceeds. Details are expected in about two weeks. No company has gone public with anything close to this much cash on hand.

The reserves reflect how effectively Anthropic has raised money. It has gathered an aggregate of $141 billion in private financing in the six years since its founding.

Still, the company faces large obligations that have not yet shown up in its expenses. Anthropic typically buys computing power 12 to 18 months in advance and records the expense only when that capacity becomes available. Its compute and infrastructure costs for the first half of the year were $8.95 billion, a number that does not capture the full scale of what it has committed to pay.

As of June 30, Anthropic reported $321.4 billion in estimated future undiscounted lease obligations and $265.6 billion in expected future fixed or minimum-guaranteed commitments. Together they come to more than half a trillion dollars. These obligations begin within the next few years and carry terms ranging from one year to 20 years.

The company also said that after June 30 it entered into new and amended agreements with a minimum future payment obligation of about $245 billion. It has not yet shared an aggregate figure for its up-to-date commitments.

To meet those obligations, Anthropic will need to keep bringing in cash, either through further fundraising or by generating profits.