Short-seller Eisman questions whether Anthropic "deliberately" concealed its latest financial report, AI safety narrative faces credibility crisis

Steve Eisman, the real-life inspiration for "The Big Short", has openly questioned Anthropic, stating that the company, which is seeking a valuation of about 2 trillion USD, "very deliberately" concealed its latest quarterly financial data.

On Wednesday, October 28, during the "Prof G Markets" podcast, Eisman asked: Why does the prospectus submitted by Anthropic on October 26 include financial data only up to June? When asked whether this omission was intentional, he simply replied:

Let’s just say very deliberate.

Citing data from Reuters, he pointed out that Anthropic’s quarterly revenue growth rate fell from 144% in the second quarter to 45% in the third quarter. According to the podcast and more recent information referenced by Yahoo, this “explosive growth” may be losing momentum.

Eisman also noted that the economic model by which the company generates revenue has shown clear signs of deterioration, information that has been excluded from the prospectus.

Steve Eisman rose to fame for being portrayed in "The Big Short" as foreseeing the subprime crisis ahead of time. His professional reputation is built on identifying financial absurdities that Wall Street largely ignores.

Eisman's main concern is that although Anthropic’s prospectus was dated October 26, it only covers financial data up to the end of June. This means that when the market assesses the company’s nearly 2 trillion USD valuation, there is at least a full quarter of missing financial information.

Eisman further pointed out that while the company's revenue growth is slowing, the cost structure for generating revenue is also deteriorating, making the financial situation more complex than what the prospectus presents.

The core of this controversy lies in the widening gap between high valuations in the AI sector and actual financial performance. Anthropic has massive capital commitments for infrastructure and continues to operate at a loss. If its latest data shows that growth is weakening, the assumptions that underpin a valuation of nearly 2 trillion USD will face direct challenges.

So far, Anthropic has not publicly responded to the allegations above. For potential investors, Eisman’s questions mean that the transparency of the company’s latest quarterly financials will become a key focus of scrutiny before the official IPO.