human has reached a major profitability milestone ahead of what is expected to be a blockbuster initial public offering next week. But CNBC’s Jim Cramer warned Wednesday that Frontier AI Labs’ upcoming spending commitments could make maintaining profitability an even bigger challenge.
“Anthropic has significant future expenses planned and will need to continue to grow rapidly to outweigh those costs and remain profitable,” the “Mad Money” host said. “If you buy Anthropic’s IPO, that’s your bet.”
Claude Development Company became profitable for the first time on an adjusted operating basis in the second quarter of 2026 and remained profitable in the third quarter. Anthropic’s adjusted operating income totaled $4.08 billion in the first nine months of 2026, according to its IPO prospectus. According to the IPO prospectus, Anthropic excludes stock-based compensation, non-cash charitable contributions and payments related to copyright class action lawsuit settlements when calculating adjusted operating income. Based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), Anthropic’s operating loss through the third quarter of this year was $1.26 billion.
“To be clear, it’s no small thing for Anthropic to be profitable on this adjusted operating income basis,” Kramer said.
Another big difference between Anthropic’s adjusted results and GAAP numbers shows up when you look at net income. This metric appears at the bottom of a company’s income statement and serves as the basis for calculating earnings per share. For 2026, Anthropic reported a net loss of more than $104 billion through September, compared to an adjusted net income of $5.6 billion.
Much of the difference reflects $94 billion in non-cash charges related to the increased value of securities issued to Google and its partners, including Google. Amazon. These arrangements allowed Anthropic to secure computing resources without paying immediate cash and allowed it to keep much of the capital raised. Mr. Kramer argued that these claims reflected infrastructure costs that the company had to pay in cash, and cautioned against dismissing them outright.
In fact, Cramer emphasized that investors cannot ignore Anthropic’s computing infrastructure purchase commitments and lease agreements. As of September, Anthropic has committed to spending about $900 billion over time, primarily on computing infrastructure, according to its prospectus.
Anthropic’s spending commitments include: space x up to $120.5 billion worth by 2029. of the alphabet Google, Amazon, microsoft and other computing providers. About half of the $900 billion pledge is expected to come due by the end of 2030, with about $70 billion expected to be paid next year alone.
“Simply put, Anthropic’s computational costs, its cash computational costs, are going to explode,” Cramer said.
Anthropic predicted in its IPO roadshow presentation that computing and infrastructure costs would ultimately account for 45% to 50% of revenue, with long-term adjusted operating margins of about 35%.
Cramer’s key takeaway Wednesday was that sustained revenue growth is needed to meet margin targets. Kramer on Tuesday highlighted that Anthropic’s sales for the first nine months of 2026 were up 1,206% year over year, but said the company needs to continue to grow rapidly to stay ahead of rising infrastructure costs.
“You have to think that this company is going to continue to grow significantly, and that it will soon grow to the point where it’s generating hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenue,” Cramer said Wednesday. “This is the only way it will work.”
The stakes extend beyond Anthropic itself. Cramer warned on Monday that the company’s IPO could be a significant test for the broader AI industry, given how heavily companies rely on the company’s continued spending.
Anthropic plans to price its IPO on Nov. 18 and begin trading on the Nasdaq on Nov. 19, CNBC’s Leslie Picker reported Tuesday.
