Anthropic generated more revenue than OpenAI in the second quarter for the first time, with the former posting $11.6 billion against the latter's $6.7 billion, according to figures obtained by the Wall Street Journal from unnamed sources. OpenAI disclosed to investors that its revenue grew 18 percent quarter over quarter while losses widened. Anthropic, by contrast, more than doubled its quarterly revenue and recorded a small operating profit.
The numbers
OpenAI's $6.7 billion represents an 18 percent increase from the first quarter. Anthropic's $11.6 billion marks a greater than 14-fold jump from the $787 million it reported in the same quarter a year earlier. Bloomberg, citing preliminary figures shared with prospective investors, placed Anthropic's second-quarter revenue above $11.5 billion and noted positive adjusted operating income. The Journal attributed the divergence to a slowdown in ChatGPT growth while Anthropic's Claude Code coding tool continued to gain traction.
The growth drivers
Enterprise adoption has shifted toward Anthropic's products for coding workflows, a trend PYMNTS documented last June when it reported that AI coding assistants allow smaller teams to accomplish work that would otherwise require additional engineers and longer timelines. OpenAI, Meta, Google, and DeepSeek have all expanded their own coding offerings in recent months, but the quarter's results suggest Anthropic's early lead in the agentic coding segment is converting to revenue at a faster clip.
The IPO timeline
Both companies have filed confidential paperwork for public listings. Bloomberg reported Thursday that Anthropic could reach the market as early as this autumn. OpenAI has not signaled a comparable timetable. Anthropic told investors its growth rate accelerated in the current quarter following July model launches, a claim that will be tested when the next set of numbers arrives.
What to watch
The revenue crossover arrives as both companies burn cash to train larger models and court enterprise contracts. Anthropic's adjusted operating profit, a non-GAAP metric, offsets the narrative that frontier AI remains purely a capital incineration business. OpenAI's widening GAAP loss, meanwhile, underscores the cost of maintaining consumer mindshare while chasing the same enterprise buyers. The next quarter will reveal whether July's model releases restore OpenAI's growth trajectory or whether Anthropic's coding-centric moat proves durable.