WSJ says Anthropic passed OpenAI in quarterly revenue

The Wall Street Journal reports that Anthropic has passed OpenAI in quarterly revenue for the first time, a notable shift in the business race behind frontier AI models. According to summaries of the report, OpenAI’s second-quarter revenue reached $6.7B, up 18% from the previous quarter, while its operating loss widened to $12.3B.

Anthropic’s second-quarter revenue was reported at more than $11.5B, with growth driven heavily by Claude Code and developer demand. That matches the broader signal from earlier Bloomberg coverage: Claude is no longer just a strong research brand, it is becoming a major commercial engine.

The useful takeaway is not that one private-company snapshot settles the market. These are reported investor figures, not audited public-company filings, and both companies are still spending enormous sums on compute. But the comparison changes the conversation: OpenAI’s consumer scale and enterprise push now have to be judged against a rival whose paid developer workflow is converting into revenue faster than many expected.

For AI users and builders, the pressure should show up in product speed, pricing, enterprise packaging and model access. The labs are competing not only on benchmark quality, but on whether usage can pay for the infrastructure race.