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By Samuel O'Brient You're currently following this author! Click to unsubscribe from email alerts. Ed Elson at Prof G Markets Live during the SXSW Conference & Festivals.
Andy Wenstrand/SXSW Conference & Festivals via Getty Images Anthropic is heading for a historic IPO in November, but after reading the AI titan's S-1 filing , Ed Elson is among the bears. Ed Elson, the co-host of the Prof G Markets podcast with Scott Galloway and an active retail trader himself, told Business Insider that there are details in the filing that investor misinterpreting. "I think too many investors are putting too much stock into the fact that Anthropic's operating loss was significantly narrowed in 2026," Elson stated.
"In the first half of last year, they lost more than $2 billion on an operating basis, and then in the first half of this year, they lost less than 700 million dollars." This isn't the first time Elson has expressed skepticism about a looming mega-IPO. In June, he raised concerns about the amount of capital that Anthropic , SpaceX and OpenAI would be injecting into the market, noting that it could pose a threat to the momentum that's been driving growth for tech stocks. Regarding Anthropic's offering, he highlighted the significant difference between how much Anthropic plans to spend on AI compute next year—as much as $150 billion—and the $8.9 billion it spent in the first half of this year.
"There's a lot that's being left out, and that's not Anthropic's fault, because the reality is that those commitments aren't active yet, and so they're not going to report something in the income statement that doesn't exist yet. But it's about to exist, and I don't think that enough investors are recognizing that fact." He acknowledged that some information is difficult to find, scattered throughout the 300-page S-1 document . Elson flagged page 161 as particularly important.
The section titeld "Liquidity and Capital Resources" kicks off a long list of future capex expecations related to compute. "It's also where they tell you that, because they're so dependent on cloud providers with whom they actually compete—companies like Google —they're also going to need to start building out their own compute infrastructure." In his view, while Anthropic's capex has been negligible so far compared to what the future hold, and spending is likely to surge in the coming years as the company builds more of its own infrastructure. "Credit to Anthropic, they don't hide that," he added.
"They tell you that in the S1, you just have to find it." Read next Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Samuel O'Brient You're currently following this author! Click to unsubscribe from email alerts. Samuel O'Brient is an experienced financial markets and business journalist who has written extensively on a wide range of topics involving economics, technology and public policy.
At Business Insider, he covers important macro and micro economic stories, including takes from leading economists and hedge fund managers , breaking IPOs , corporate bankruptcies , meme stocks and short-selling . He also writes on other markets such as crypto , oil and real estate .He has interviewed many of the market’s most influential voices, ranging from top economists such as Mark Zandi and Richard Thaler to prominent investors including Danny Moses , Andrew Left , Anthony Scaramucci, Louis Navellier and Grant Cardone . Programs such as LiveNOW from Fox , Taking Stock and Ticker News have had Samuel on to discuss stock market and economic developments.
His reporting has been cited by The New York Times DealBook, Bloomberg Radio, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Gizmodo and TheFutureParty. Samuel began at InvestorPlace, covering investing, retail trading and macro economic trends. Prior to joining Business Insider, he served as a technology markets reporter at TheStreet.
He is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Trinity College Dublin. Samuel's work has appeared in publications such as TipRanks, EV and Observer. When he isn't chasing down stories, he can often be found browsing book and record shops.
To reach Samuel, email him at sobrient@insider.com or connect with him on LinkedIn. He is also on Signal as Samuel Clemens. Investing Wall Street Stocks More Stock Market IPO Anthropic OpenAI AI Markets
Source: Business Insider
