By Emmanuel Nduka
Goldman Sachs has projected that Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the Claude chatbot, could generate more than $600 billion in annual revenue by 2030, in a forecast that underscores the extraordinary commercial potential of the rapidly expanding AI industry.
The projection, made by the Wall Street investment bank’s analysts and shared with a prospective investor, suggests that Anthropic’s revenue could rise more than 130-fold from the $4.6 billion it recorded in 2025.
According to the estimates, the company’s revenue is expected to reach approximately $52 billion in 2026 before climbing to $136 billion in 2027. Goldman Sachs further projects that sales could hit $442 billion in 2029 before exceeding $600 billion the following year.
If realised, the forecast would place Anthropic among the world’s largest companies by annual revenue, marking an extraordinary transformation for a technology start-up founded barely six years ago.
The projections come as Anthropic prepares to undertake a major initial public offering (IPO), with investment bankers seeking to raise as much as $64 billion from the share sale. The proposed offering could value the company at approximately $1.4 trillion at the upper end of its indicative pricing range.
However, the company’s ambitious growth prospects come with substantial financial commitments, particularly the enormous cost of developing and maintaining the computing infrastructure required to power its artificial intelligence systems.
Goldman Sachs estimates that Anthropic may not achieve positive annual free cash flow until 2030, when it projects the company could generate approximately $33.6 billion.
Despite recording positive free cash flow during the first three quarters of 2026, the bank expects the company to experience significant cash outflows in subsequent periods, projecting a deficit of $12.8 billion in the fourth quarter of this year, which could widen to $65.7 billion in 2027.
Anthropic’s commitments to computing infrastructure are estimated at approximately $900 billion over the coming years, reflecting the enormous capital requirements associated with expanding its AI capabilities and meeting growing demand from businesses and individual users.
The investment bank also anticipates that Anthropic’s operating losses could peak at $40.4 billion in 2027 before the company achieves operating profitability in 2029. By 2030, operating profit is projected to reach $65.2 billion.
Regulatory filings released ahead of the proposed flotation show that Anthropic recorded an operating loss of $8.1 billion in 2025, although the figure narrowed to $1.3 billion during the first nine months of 2026.
The company’s rapid commercial expansion has nevertheless attracted considerable investor interest. Anthropic disclosed that its annualised revenue run rate reached $81 billion in October, representing a $10 billion increase from the preceding month.
An annualised revenue run rate is an estimate of what a company’s earnings would amount to over a year if its most recent monthly performance were sustained. It is different from actual annual revenue and should not be confused with Goldman Sachs’ longer-term revenue projections.
The scale of the anticipated flotation also places Anthropic among the most closely watched technology listings, particularly as investors weigh the enormous commercial opportunities presented by artificial intelligence against the risks associated with heavy infrastructure spending.
Goldman Sachs, which also played a leading role in the June listing of SpaceX, previously projected that revenue from the company’s artificial intelligence division could rise from $3.2 billion in 2025 to $322 billion by 2030.
Anthropic’s proposed public listing is also unfolding against a backdrop of growing uncertainty over the sustainability of the global AI investment boom.
Political developments in the United States, particularly the recent electoral gains by Democrats opposed to certain aspects of the data-centre expansion, have heightened concerns that regulatory and political pressures could slow infrastructure investments by major technology companies and cloud-computing providers.
Such a slowdown could complicate the growth ambitions of AI companies, many of which depend on increasingly expensive data centres, advanced semiconductor technology and enormous computing capacity to sustain their operations.
For Anthropic, the challenge will be translating its exceptional revenue growth and investor enthusiasm into a sustainable and profitable business model.
While Goldman Sachs’ projections point to the possibility of one of the most remarkable commercial expansions in the technology sector, the company’s ability to meet its ambitious targets will ultimately depend on sustained demand for artificial intelligence services, effective cost management and the continued expansion of the infrastructure underpinning the industry.
