Anthropic’s S-1 showed $16.3 billion in first-half revenue and an $80.7 billion net loss ahead of its Nasdaq listing. Big Tech’s AI bill turned cash flow negative: Amazon’s trailing free cash flow swung to -$42.4 billion and Alphabet’s quarterly figure to -$9.1 billion. And OpenAI cut its round target to $20 billion, with only about $11 billion committed.
Key takeaways
- Most of Anthropic’s $80.7 billion loss is a $72.4 billion non-cash convertible-note charge, but those notes turn into shares that dilute IPO buyers.
- AI capex is now eating the cash flow of the companies paying for it: Alphabet spent $51.4 billion in one quarter and Amazon $77.3 billion.
- Private money is getting pickier at the top: OpenAI’s $1.25 trillion round has drawn about $11 billion so far, while smaller AI startups kept raising at higher marks.
The week in numbers
| Number | What it is | Story |
|---|---|---|
| $80.7B | Anthropic’s first-half 2026 net loss, $72.4B of it a convertible-note charge | Anthropic S-1 |
| -$42.4B | Amazon’s trailing 12-month free cash flow, down from +$14.8B a year earlier | Amazon free cash flow |
| $51.4B | Alphabet’s Q3 capex, up about 114% from a year earlier | Alphabet free cash flow |
| $37.5B | Meta’s stock offering, priced at $625 a share | Meta stock offering |
| ~$11B | Committed to OpenAI’s round so far, against a target cut to $20B | OpenAI funding target |
| $1 | GPT-6.1 Terra’s API price per million input tokens, half its predecessor’s | GPT-6.1 Terra |
AI deals and funding
Anthropic files to go public. The S-1 filed October 26 shows first-half revenue of $16.3 billion, about 14 times a year earlier, and a June quarter with a $974 million operating profit. The $80.7 billion net loss is mostly a fair-value charge on convertible notes, and the company held $131.7 billion in cash and short-term investments at June 30. It plans to list Class A shares on Nasdaq under ANT, with no price range yet. Read the S-1 breakdown.
OpenAI trims its ask. The Financial Times reported OpenAI cut its round target to $20 billion from $30 billion, holding the $1.25 trillion valuation, and The Wall Street Journal said about $11 billion is committed after a tepid response. UAE investors led by MGX are expected to be the largest contributors. Read more.
Meta sells $37.5 billion of stock. Meta priced $25 billion of common at $625 a share plus $12.5 billion of 6.5% mandatory convertible preferred, with a planned $60 billion at-the-market sale of Class C stock still to come. It guides 2026 capex to $135 billion to $145 billion. Read more.
SoftBank’s $50 billion Malaysia pledge, unsigned. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Masayoshi Son picked sites for $50 billion of AI and data center investment, but SoftBank has not confirmed the figure and the only signed framework names no dollar amount. Read more.
Launches that moved money
GPT-6.1 Terra halves OpenAI’s mid-tier price. The new model costs $1 per million input tokens and $5 per million output, down from $2 and $12, and Artificial Analysis puts its cost per task at $0.40 versus $1.40. That doubles what an agent budget buys and leaves Claude Sonnet 5.5 listing at twice Terra’s price. Read more.
The price war reaches contracts. The Information reported that OpenAI discounts of more than 30% pulled most of Replit’s $100 million-a-year AI spend away from Anthropic, and DataCamp’s CEO says his costs fell 80% to 90%. Read more.
Google’s Gemini 4 Carbon tops the index, for defenders only. It scored 59 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, one point ahead of Claude Opus 5.5, at an introductory $2 input and $10 output per million tokens. For now only vetted cyber defenders can use it. Read more. Google DeepMind also showed Genie 4, a world model with native audio and roughly two-minute scenes, but no price yet. Read more.
A security test on S-1 day. Startup Cathedral says its AI agents found paths into Anthropic’s internal systems in under 12 hours, on the day Anthropic filed. Read more.
Investing: what changed this week
Alphabet burns cash as Cloud doubles. Google Cloud revenue rose 103% to $30.7 billion and its backlog reached $561 billion, but $51.4 billion of capex pushed free cash flow to -$9.1 billion. Shares fell about 9% after hours, and the CFO said capex will increase significantly in 2027. Read more.
Amazon’s AWS speeds up, cash flow goes negative. AWS grew 39% to $46.0 billion with a $578 billion backlog, but Q3 property and equipment purchases of $77.3 billion took trailing free cash flow to -$42.4 billion. The stock fell about 7%. Read more.
Lilly vs Novo: paying up for growth. Lilly’s Q3 revenue rose 39% to $24.4 billion and the stock jumped about 7.5%, leaving it near 39 times 2026 earnings guidance against Novo’s 11.7 times. Read more.
Income seekers: check what the yield is paying for. Strategy’s preferreds yield from 9.80% (STRF) to 14.05% (STRD) and move to daily dividends, but none is backed by bitcoin collateral. Read more. On safer cash, USFR yielded 3.99% against SGOV’s 3.76% going into the Fed meeting, about $23 more a year on $10,000 after fees. Read more.
Two cost checks. Range Resources closed October 26 just $0.14 above its EQT deal value, leaving no cushion if the merger breaks. Read more. And the Zcash ETF charges 2.5% a year, ten times IBIT’s fee. Read more.
AI Funding Tracker update
This week added seven AI rounds of $100 million or more worth $2.1 billion, led by FuriosaAI’s $620 million Series D and Bedrock Robotics’ $600 million Series C, plus two earlier rounds verified retroactively: doubleAI’s $200 million and Cyera’s $400 million extension. The tracker now lists 87 rounds totaling $345.1 billion, and October set a 2026 record with 24 rounds. OpenAI’s reduced target and DeepSeek’s reported close sit in Reported talks. See the AI Funding Tracker.
What to watch next week
- Monday, November 2: Apple and Palantir report after the close. StockTitan
- Tuesday, November 3: AMD, Arista Networks and Super Micro report after the close, a read on AI chip and server demand. StockTitan
- Wednesday, November 4: Novo Nordisk is expected before the open, the next test in the Lilly comparison; Qualcomm and Arm report after the close. StockTitan
- Friday, November 6: The October jobs report, at 8:30 a.m. ET. Thrive Markets
The bottom line
This was the week the AI build-out showed up in the cash flow statements. Google Cloud doubled and AWS grew 39%, yet Alphabet and Amazon now spend more than they bring in, and Meta is selling stock to keep up. Anthropic’s filing shows the same pattern from the other side: revenue up 14-fold, compute still about 55% of it. Investors are paying for growth, but they are starting to ask for the payback math. OpenAI’s slimmer round suggests even the biggest names now have to show it.
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Wealth Engine researches and drafts with AI tools and checks every figure against its sources. How we report.
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