The numbers tell a different story than the headlines.
While half the world is talking about the Pentagon ban, Bloomberg dropped a figure worth pausing on: Anthropic has reached an annualized run rate of nearly $20 billion. At the end of 2025, it was $9 billion.
That’s more than a doubling in a few months.
Where the growth is coming from
Most of the revenue comes from enterprise customers. Companies are increasingly deploying Claude for internal workflows — from code generation to document analysis to customer support. Claude Code alone has become one of the key revenue drivers.
Then there’s the Streisand effect of the Pentagon dispute. Since Trump’s ban, downloads of the Claude app have skyrocketed. The app sat at number one in the Apple App Store for days. The number of free users has grown more than 60 percent since January, and paid subscribers have more than doubled since October.
What this means in context
A $20 billion run rate — that’s impressive for a company that barely had revenue three years ago. For comparison, OpenAI’s last known run rate was around $12 billion at the end of 2025, before their $110 billion funding round.
But there’s a catch. The Pentagon’s supply chain risk designation could hit exactly the enterprise business that’s driving this growth. Many of Anthropic’s large customers also have government contracts. If they have to choose between Claude and the Pentagon, the decision won’t always go Anthropic’s way.
My take
The numbers show that Anthropic is commercially stronger than ever. The Pentagon problem is real, but it’s not everything. The majority of Anthropic’s business has nothing to do with the military. As long as Claude delivers technically — and it does — growth will continue.
The question is just how much damage the political fight does before it’s resolved.
Sources: