Anthropic Q3 personnel expenses jump to $1.71 billion from $489 million

The AI lab's people costs more than tripled year over year, but revenue grew much faster ahead of a planned Nasdaq listing Anthropic spent $1.71 billion on personnel in the third quarter. A year earlier, that line item was $489 million. The quarterly jump is part of a broader trend. Anthropic’s personnel expenses reached $3.152 billion in the first half of 2026, according to its SEC Form S-1, which was filed on October 26, 2026. That represents a 486% increase over the same period a year earlier. A large share of it isn’t cash. Stock-based compensation made up approximately 70% of personnel costs, or around $2.2 billion. Headcount stood at approximately 5,300 employees as of September 30, 2026. The revenue side of the ledger Anthropic reported revenue of $16.286 billion for the first half of 2026. That is an increase of around 1,300% year over year. Personnel expenses fell to 19% of revenue in the first half of 2026, down from 46% a year earlier. Revenue per employee shows the same shift. On a trailing-twelve-month basis, Anthropic generated around $6.6 million per employee as of September 30, 2026, compared with $1.4 million a year prior. People aren’t the biggest bill Anthropic s...