Anthropic passes OpenAI on revenue for the first time

August 19, 2026 | Source: THE DECODER

Tags: Anthropic, OpenAI, Claude Code, GPT-5.6, revenue

Anthropic's quarterly revenue hit $11.6B — surpassing OpenAI's $6.7B for the first time — as Claude Code adoption drives a sevenfold year-over-year increase in Anthropic's annualized revenue rate to $65B while OpenAI's operating margin stays negative ahead of an expected IPO.

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For the first time, Anthropic has overtaken OpenAI in quarterly revenue. OpenAI grew 18% from Q1 to Q2 2026, with revenue rising from $5.7B to $6.7B — but that pace disappointed some investors, per the Wall Street Journal. Anthropic doubled its revenue over the same period, reaching $11.6B in Q2, and posted a small operating profit. Year over year, Anthropic has grown its annualized revenue rate sevenfold to $65B. The divergence is credited to Claude Code's success in enterprise coding and to Anthropic's higher revenue per use compared to OpenAI — a dynamic Vercel has reportedly quantified. OpenAI, by contrast, has seen slower growth at ChatGPT, and its operating margin remains negative as it prepares for an expected IPO. This competitive shift is significant: Anthropic now generates nearly twice OpenAI's quarterly revenue, reversing a hierarchy that has held since ChatGPT's 2022 launch. OpenAI says growth accelerated after GPT-5.6 launched in July 2026, but the Q2 snapshot represents a dramatic change in AI market positioning.