Anthropic's Gross Margin Rocketed to 85% From 12% in a Year, but the S-1 Warns It Won't Last

Anthropic filed its S-1 for an upcoming IPO, revealing impressive gross margins of 85% (up from 12% a year earlier) driven by 14-fold revenue growth to $16.3 billion. However, the company warns margins will fluctuate due to massive locked-in compute costs ($417 billion in obligations) contrasted with consumption-based customer revenue. With a potential $2 trillion valuation (63x sales), the IPO carries significant risk, as historical data shows half of the 10 largest IPOs had negative returns after one year.