Anthropic accused of hiding $108B in expenses via convertible notes, echoing dotcom bubble accounting
SumitGup · x · 2026-10-27
X user @rdd147 alleges Anthropic is using a dotcom-era accounting trick ahead of its IPO: hiding massive expenses in convertible notes redeemable at IPO, worth roughly $108 billion. The post draws parallels to bubble-era practices — AOL swapping shares for services (Homestore, DrKoop) and telecom suppliers like Lucent, Cisco and Nortel using vendor financing with equity or warrants.
Reposter SumitGup adds pointed questions: why does Anthropic suddenly need hundreds of billions per year in compute after IPO when it was paying almost nothing before? Why did OpenAI project $300 billion in compute losses through 2030 while Anthropic claimed profitability — "it's the same business"? And why wouldn't Anthropic just pay off the original $7.5 billion convertible notes with $120 billion cash on hand rather than letting them dilute into $108 billion of equity?
Note: unverified personal allegations, not confirmed by Anthropic.
Related event: Report claims Anthropic hid $108B in spending via convertible notes(2 posts)→
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