Can AI labs ever turn a profit?

Anthropic is about to IPO and I collect a lot of different data points in my latest Reuters column to asses if they can ever become profitable. The answer won’t surprise you, but it was fun putting the mosaic theory into action.

Can AI labs ever turn a profit?

LONDON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - AI has a math problem. Anthropic’s IPO filing shows revenues rose nearly 12-fold last year but operating losses ballooned as well, raising an uncomfortable question: will leading AI labs ever turn a profit?

The prospectus, obtained last week by Reuters, showed that while Anthropic’s revenue jumped to $4.6 billion in 2025, it spent $7.3 billion on compute and infrastructure. The result was an operating ​loss that widened from $2.98 billion in 2024 to $8.06 billion in 2025.

Read the full piece here (paywall): https://www.reuters.com/commentary/reuters-open-interest/can-ai-labs-ever-turn-profit-joachim-klement-2026-10-07/