- Anthropic workers are likely making a good salary, plus stock-based compensation
- Revenue per employee is more than 2x Meta's and 2.6x Google's
- The company is targeting a valuation of around $1.5 trillion
Anthropic has confirmed in a recent S-1 filing that it spent $1.711 billion on personnel in its most recent three-month period, down slightly on the previous quarter's $1.857 billion but up around 3.5x compared with the same quarter in 2025 ($489 million).
With around 5,300 people on the books, it means the average worker set the company back over $322,000 for the quarter, or over $107,000 per month.
While these figures are likely wild overestimates for the average worker's pay, they show just how much the AI giant is having to spend on talent compared with last year.
Anthropic is spending billions on workers' salaries
Crucially, the average worker did not receive $107,000 in a single month, because these figures also include bonuses, employee benefits, payroll taxes and stock-based compensation. An estimated $1.1 billion of the quarterly total came from stock-based compensation, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the total sum.
Still, personnel costs accounted for around 15% of the company's revenue over the first nine months of 2026, which puts Anthropic in a positive position. The company spent $4.8 billion on personnel in the first three quarters.
Flip those figures around and we have a company that's making an estimated $6.6 million in revenue per employee, compared with $3.2 million at Meta and $2.5 million at Google, per Business Insider calculations.
Recruiting AI talent is expensive
Anthropic doesn't publish salary information, but given its huge expenditure relative to the number of employees, it's clear that recruiting AI talent is expensive. With stock-based compensation accounting for two-thirds of Anthropic's personnel expenditure, workers are likely being attracted by the potential of huge future wealth, rather than immediate compensation.
An upcoming IPO has Anthropic valued at somewhere around the $1.5 trillion mark, per recent Reuters reporting. That would put it ahead of OpenAI, which is now likely targeting a $1.25 trillion valuation, per a separate Reuters report.
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