This is how all companies calculate gross margins, which is why they're called gross. Gross profit is revenue minus the cost of goods sold. For example, if you sell wheat for $1 and spend $0.20 of labor and raw materials (e.g. fertilizer) to grow it, your gross margin is 80%. This will not include equipment like tractors. AI companies, like all others, include this in their quarterly reports because they are legally, professionally, and customarily required to.
The real circus is commenters on HackerNews thinking this number means Anthropic is cooking the books or that it's actually profitable. Gross margin is meaningless for an AI company, since most of their expenses are R&D and infrastructure (the two things excluded from gross margin), but they have to report it anyway.
The real circus is commenters on HackerNews thinking this number means Anthropic is cooking the books or that it's actually profitable. Gross margin is meaningless for an AI company, since most of their expenses are R&D and infrastructure (the two things excluded from gross margin), but they have to report it anyway.