Nearly Half of Anthropic's Sales Clear Through Amazon and Google, Its Rivals and Landlords
Anthropic's IPO filing routes 47% of 2025 revenue, $2.16 billion of nearly $4.6 billion, through the Amazon and Google marketplaces that kept $351 million in fees and collected 60% of year-end receivables. Investors asked to pay about $2 trillion will be pricing a top line booked gross, with the rivals' cut called a marketing cost.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
The rival's cash register
Nearly half of Anthropic's sales last year were rung up on cash registers owned by its two biggest competitors. The confidential IPO filing shows $2.16 billion of nearly $4.6 billion in 2025 revenue, 47%, clearing through the Amazon and Google cloud marketplaces 12. The same two companies are its investors, its suppliers of computing power and its direct rivals.
Sixteen cents on every marketplace dollar
The channel is not free. The platforms kept roughly $351 million in distribution fees, about 16 cents of every marketplace dollar 1. They also collected 60% of the $909 million in year-end customer bills, up from 42%; the filing warns that disputes or delays in that pipeline could hurt cash flow even though Anthropic contracts directly with the customers 1.
Two rivals went from side channel to nearly half of Anthropic's money
- Revenue sold through their marketplaces
- Customer bills they collect
Data
| Revenue sold through their marketplaces | Customer bills they collect | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | %11 | — |
| 2024 | %32 | %42 |
| 2025 | %47 | %60 |
Investor, landlord, cashier, competitor
The filing names the position itself: reliance on a limited set of partners "creates complex dynamics that could give rise to conflicts of interest and adversely affect our access to compute" 1. The platforms also see Anthropic's pricing and commercial terms, which could shape how they allocate computing power and how hard they sell Claude 1. Behind the channel sit $54.6 billion of non-cancellable hosting commitments from the end of 2025, inside long-term commitments above $417 billion, of which at least $111.1 billion goes to Google and $110 billion to Amazon, largely regardless of usage 18.
At least $221 billion of the $417 billion in commitments goes to its two rivals
Data
| Commitments from the end of 2025 | |
|---|---|
| $111.1B | |
| Amazon | $110B |
| All long-term commitments | $417B |
What a $2 trillion buyer holds
The ask is about $2 trillion against a 2025 net loss of $42 billion, of which roughly $34 billion was an accounting charge on financing that may convert into shares, not cash spent running the business; the operating loss more than doubled, to $8.06 billion 345. The base is thin as well as fast: two unnamed customers each brought 12% of revenue, and many of the largest are not bound by long-term contracts 1. What the price assumes is the trajectory, $11.5 billion of second-quarter 2026 revenue, more than double all of 2025 5. The comparison keeps moving: OpenAI's annualized revenue is nearing $70 billion against roughly $65 billion for Anthropic as of July 7.
Gross, net and the size of the argument
The accounting fight decides what that top line is worth. OpenAI has told investors and employees that gross booking inflates Anthropic's reported revenue by billions 1. Anthropic answers that it sets the prices and delivers the service, making it the "principal," with the platforms' cut a marketing cost 1.
Microsoft sits on both sides of the argument: it has carried Claude on its cloud since a deal signed in November, while OpenAI records only its own share of sales through partners such as Microsoft 16.
The arithmetic is tamer than the argument. Stripping $351 million of fees out of $4.6 billion trims the top line by under 8%, inside the 6 to 10% band a source familiar with the financials puts on a switch to net 6.
What the SEC letters must settle
The pre-IPO paperwork will publish the SEC's correspondence with Anthropic, which should show how the gross treatment was justified 6. Marketing could begin as early as mid-October, with the listing potentially days before the November midterms 8. A $2 trillion buyer is underwriting not just Claude but the two rivals that sell it compute, keep 16 cents on the dollar and collect its cash.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
