Anthropic told prospective investors at a San Francisco investor day on Wednesday that third-quarter revenue rose 45% from the prior quarter to $16.8 billion, and that the company was profitable on an adjusted basis, Reuters reported. Revenue was $4.7 billion in Q1 and $11.6 billion in Q2.

The growth rate is the catch: Q2 more than doubled Q1, so Q3's 45% sequential gain reads as a slowdown. Some investors who attended discussed a valuation around $1.5 trillion for the November IPO, down from roughly $2 trillion previously expected.

The listing is expected before rival OpenAI's and likely after the November US midterm elections. Anthropic is arguing that rapid revenue growth can eventually outweigh the very large costs of building and running frontier systems.