Anthropic, an artificial intelligence (AI) developer, is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) that sheds light on its significant dependence on a small group of major technology partners. According to a confidential IPO filing reviewed in early October 2026, nearly half of the company’s 2025 sales were routed through cloud platforms operated by Amazon and Alphabet’s Google. These two firms also serve as key investors, critical suppliers of computing power, and competitors to Anthropic in the AI sector.
The filing reveals that 47% of Anthropic’s revenue last year, totaling about $2.16 billion, came from sales conducted via these cloud marketplaces. From this revenue, Anthropic paid approximately $351 million in distribution fees to the platforms, implying that the cloud providers retained nearly 16 cents on every dollar of sales. These fees are reported under the company's operating expenses related to sales, marketing, and partnerships.
Anthropic’s business has experienced rapid growth, with revenue surging twelvefold in 2025 to nearly $4.6 billion, driven primarily by consumption-based payments tied to the use of its Claude AI system, which accounted for about $3.8 billion. Subscription services contributed around $789 million. The United States was the source of nearly two-thirds of total sales. Despite strong revenue growth, Anthropic’s operating losses more than doubled in 2025, exceeding $8 billion.
The company has made substantial long-term commitments to secure computing capacity critical to powering its AI models. At the end of 2025, Anthropic held $54.6 billion in non-cancellable hosting and computing contracts, with total long-term commitments surpassing $417 billion by early 2026. This includes agreements covering 3.5 gigawatts of dedicated computing power.
Anthropic’s prospectus described these relationships with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft—whose cloud platform it joined through a November deal—as strategic advantages. Offering its Claude model across these platforms allows Anthropic to leverage their extensive sales networks and access customers already using their cloud services, accelerating market reach at a scale the company believes few competitors could match.
However, the filing also acknowledged inherent risks associated with such reliance. The company noted that dependence on a limited set of partners could lead to conflicts of interest and potentially restrict access to computing resources. Because the cloud providers are also Anthropic’s customers and investors, they gain insight into its pricing and commercial terms, which may affect their decisions on computing resource allocation and sales efforts.
Requests for comment from Amazon, Alphabet, and Anthropic were not answered or acknowledged. As Anthropic moves forward with its IPO, investors will weigh the company’s rapid growth prospects alongside the potential challenges posed by its intertwined financial and operational relationships with major cloud platform providers.