Alphabet, Amazon see higher profits from rising value of Anthropic stakes

[OpenAI ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude and Perplexity mobile APP icons on screen. Assorted AI chatbots]
Robert Way

Both Alphabet (GOOG [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/GOOG]) (GOOGL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/GOOGL]) and Amazon.com (AMZN [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/AMZN]) last month reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings, helped by surging valuations of their investments in Anthropic, the artificial intelligence startup behind the Claude chatbot.

Alphabet (GOOG [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/GOOG]) (GOOGL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/GOOGL]) said it recorded $10.7 billion in net gains on equity securities, partly from a private company widely understood to be Anthropic, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Amazon (AMZN [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/AMZN]), meanwhile, reported a 38% jump in quarterly profit, which included a $9.5 billion pretax gain tied to the same AI firm. The revaluation appeared in Amazon’s (AMZN [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/AMZN]) nonoperating income, reflecting the company’s higher estimate of its Anthropic stake’s worth.

The results highlight how the rapid rise in generative AI valuations is beginning to shape the financial statements of major technology companies. Once viewed as long-term strategic bets, these holdings are now producing significant accounting gains, even though the technology’s direct commercial impact is still developing.

In September, Anthropic raised $13 billion, nearly tripling its valuation to $183 billion, forcing investors such as Alphabet and Amazon to mark up their holdings. Accounting rules require companies to adjust the value of such private investments when new financing rounds set a higher share price.

It’s not the first time Alphabet’s profits have been buoyed by private-market gains. Earlier this year, it logged $8 billion in paper profits linked to its investment in Elon Musk’s SpaceX (SPACE [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SPACE]), Bloomberg News reported.

Microsoft (MSFT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/MSFT]), by contrast, said this week that its quarterly results were dragged down by a $3.1 billion loss related to OpenAI, in which it has invested $13.75 billion for a 27% stake.

Alphabet has committed roughly $3 billion to Anthropic so far and recently agreed to supply the startup with 1 million AI chips beginning in 2026 under a deal worth tens of billions of dollars.

Amazon’s backing totals $8 billion and includes a vast network of data centers and custom AI chips built for Anthropic under its Project Rainier initiative. The company confirmed this week that the infrastructure is now fully operational.

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