Anthropic's "Profitability" Swindle

Ed Zitron argues that Anthropic's reported Q2 2026 operating profit is misleading. The profitability is based on non-GAAP EBITDA metrics during a period when Anthropic received a discounted rate on its SpaceX/Colossus compute deal, artificially suppressing costs. The author highlights contradictions between Anthropic's CFO's sworn court statement claiming revenues 'exceeding $5 billion to date' and the company's own leaked ARR figures and WSJ-reported quarterly revenues. Zitron contends that Anthropic's costs scale linearly with revenue, the profitability window is temporary, and the leak was timed to coincide with a funding round and NVIDIA earnings to sustain AI hype. He draws parallels to WeWork's creative accounting and calls on AI boosters to demand more transparent, GAAP-compliant financials.