Anthropic held $131.8 billion of cash and short-term investments on 30 September, its S-1/A shows, more than Amazon’s $114.2 billion, SpaceX’s $89.9 billion and Meta’s $82.4 billion in their latest filings, by our arithmetic. Among nine large US companies, only Berkshire Hathaway, at $377.4 billion, and Alphabet, at $265.1 billion, held more.
A post on X by @unusual_whales on Friday said Anthropic is sitting on the third-largest such pile of any non-bank US company. Against each company’s latest filing, Anthropic’s third place among the nine it lists holds, but all nine of the post’s figures differ from the filings, eight of them by $5.7 billion or more, by our arithmetic.
Business Pill · Free Cash Flow
A short evergreen explainer on free cash flow, the cash a business generates after its investment. It teaches the general idea and does not discuss these companies.
The key insight: As we read the filings, the ranking says more about how much Anthropic has raised than about what it has earned: its $131.8 billion equals 93% of the $141.1 billion of capital the S-1/A says it had raised by 30 September, by our arithmetic.
We added cash and cash equivalents to current short-term investments or current marketable securities from each company’s latest balance sheet on SEC EDGAR. All are as of 30 September 2026, except Apple, whose fiscal year ended on 26 September, and Nvidia, whose latest quarter ended on 26 July.
Anthropic’s balance sheet shows $95,562 million of cash and cash equivalents and $36,283 million of short-term investments, $131.8 billion together. On 30 June, the original S-1 showed $112,389 million and $19,262 million, $131.7 billion, which matches the post’s figure. The filing says Anthropic had raised “an aggregate of $141.1 billion of capital” by 30 September; the pile equals 93% of that, by our arithmetic.
Alphabet holds $265.1 billion, Amazon $114.2 billion, SpaceX $89.9 billion, Meta $82.4 billion, Microsoft $64.5 billion and Apple $56.7 billion, from their latest 10-Q or annual report. Nvidia’s 10-Q shows $22,443 million of cash and $34,143 million of marketable debt securities, $56.6 billion; that leaves out $42,783 million of marketable equity securities.
Cash and cash equivalents plus current short-term investments or marketable securities at each company’s latest balance sheet on SEC EDGAR (30 September 2026; Apple 26 September; Nvidia 26 July). Nvidia counts debt securities only; Berkshire includes railroad and utility cash. Sums are our arithmetic.
What Was Posted on X
Anthropic is sitting on the third-largest pile of cash and short-term investments of any non-bank US company.
Unusual Whales posted this list at 14:17 UTC on 13 November, saying Anthropic has the third-largest pile of cash and short-term investments of any non-bank US company, and giving figures for nine companies without sources or dates. This piece checks each figure against the company’s latest filing: the order holds for Anthropic, but all nine figures differ from the filings.
How Berkshire Gets to $377.4 Billion
Berkshire’s 10-Q lists $36,034 million of cash and $336,735 million of “Short-term investments in U.S. Treasury Bills” in its insurance and other businesses, plus $4,666 million of cash in its railroad, utilities and energy businesses. That is $377.4 billion, by our arithmetic, or $372.8 billion without the railroad and utility cash.
A footnote says the Treasury bill line includes unsettled purchases of $20.5 billion at 30 September, amounts that were also included in liabilities. The post put Berkshire at $365.5 billion; it gives no source or date for any of its figures.
The figures in the @unusual_whales post of 13 November against each company’s latest filing on SEC EDGAR, on the definition used in this piece. Sums are our arithmetic.
Where the Post and the Filings Differ
The post’s order matches the filings except at the bottom, where Apple, at $56.7 billion, edges Nvidia, at $56.6 billion; the post had Nvidia ahead. Alphabet is $22.6 billion above the post’s $242.5 billion and Berkshire $11.9 billion above, while Microsoft is $12.3 billion below, SpaceX $10.1 billion, Amazon $8.8 billion and Meta $7.9 billion, by our arithmetic.
As we read the balance sheets, the pile barely moved between 30 June and 30 September, from $131.7 billion to $131.8 billion, while the capital raised stayed at $141.1 billion in both filings.
As we read the post, its rank survives a check against the filings but its numbers do not: all nine differ from the latest balance sheets, and its Anthropic figure matches the 30 June balance, not the 30 September one.
Anthropic S-1/A, 10 November 2026
“As of September 30, 2026, we had raised an aggregate of $141.1 billion of capital”
Three Implications
FOR THE RANKING Third of nine on the latest filings, $17.6 billion ahead of Amazon and about half of Alphabet’s $265.1 billion, by our arithmetic.
FOR THE IPO The IPO and the $26.0 billion placement come on top of this pile; see our earlier piece on what Anthropic would hold after the IPO.
FOR READING VIRAL LISTS Check the date and the definition: Berkshire’s figure includes $20.5 billion of unsettled Treasury bill purchases, and Nvidia’s excludes $42,783 million of equity securities.
The framework records: “the capex race is no longer a corporate spending cycle. It is a sovereign-scale financing problem dressed in tech-company clothing”.
As we read it, a $131.8 billion cash pile at a company that raised $141.1 billion is that financing problem in balance-sheet form. The framework predates the S-1/A and does not discuss it.
What Is Not Established
We checked the nine companies the post names, not every US company, so we cannot confirm its claim about all non-bank US companies. Definitions differ by company: we used current short-term investments and marketable securities only, so long-term holdings such as Apple’s non-current marketable securities are left out. The latest balance sheets are not all from the same date. For the IPO itself, see our piece on the China exclusion and the order book and our Anthropic IPO map.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
The Great Convergence of Capital, Power, and Geopolitics
This week’s issue: for two years the AI build-out was priced as a supply story, and last week as a credit story. This week it was priced as a permission story, and the answer arrived as a cost, not a ban.
On the latest filings, Anthropic’s $131.8 billion of cash and short-term investments ranks third among the nine companies the viral post names, behind Berkshire Hathaway’s $377.4 billion and Alphabet’s $265.1 billion and ahead of Amazon, SpaceX and Meta. The rank in the post holds; its figures do not match the filings, by our arithmetic.
A note on sourcing. The claim checked here is a post on X by @unusual_whales at 14:17 UTC on 13 November 2026, read in full. Anthropic’s figures are from its S-1 of 26 October and S-1/A of 10 November 2026; Berkshire Hathaway’s and Nvidia’s from their latest 10-Q balance sheets; Alphabet, Amazon, SpaceX, Meta, Microsoft and Apple from the values tagged in their latest 10-Q or annual report on SEC EDGAR, read through SEC’s XBRL data service on 13 November. Sums, differences and ratios are our arithmetic. No company was contacted for this piece.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
