Analysis
Anthropic's revenue run rate reached $47 billion by May 2026, up from $9 billion for all of 2025, according to Menlo Ventures partner Matt Murphy -- one of Anthropic's earliest and largest institutional backers. Murphy described the growth as something he's "never seen" in 25 years of venture investing, a period spanning the internet, mobile and first cloud computing waves.
The disclosure carries real weight because it comes from an insider with direct visibility into Anthropic's numbers: Menlo just closed a record $3 billion fund in June, its largest ever, with continued Anthropic exposure as a core holding. Murphy specifically attributed Anthropic's growth to its enterprise and developer positioning rather than pure model-quality leadership -- a notable departure from the industry's usual framing that assumes the lab with the best benchmark scores wins the most revenue.
“Watch for Anthropic's own IPO timeline, still targeted for around October 2026, for independent, audited confirmation of these figures.”
The figure lands in the same week Alphabet disclosed its roughly 14% stake in Anthropic jumped to approximately $124.3 billion in value, after Anthropic's own valuation nearly tripled from $380 billion to $965 billion during the second quarter. Combined with Alphabet's separately disclosed $94.1 billion SpaceX stake, the two positions are now generating tens of billions in paper gains that are materially padding Alphabet's own reported earnings.
For VCs and LPs, a $47 billion run rate on $9 billion of prior-year revenue is an extraordinary growth rate even by frontier-AI-lab standards, and validates Menlo's oversized bet on the company. The number also underscores how much of the paper wealth currently flowing through Big Tech balance sheets -- Alphabet's included -- is now directly tied to Anthropic's continued growth holding up. Watch for Anthropic's own IPO timeline, still targeted for around October 2026, for independent, audited confirmation of these figures.
