Jim Cramer: This is the bet you're making if you buy the Anthropic IPO

Anthropic has reached a major profitability milestone ahead of its expected blockbuster initial public offering next week. But CNBC's Jim Cramer warned Wednesday that the frontier AI lab's future spending commitments could make staying profitable a much bigger challenge.

"Anthropic is due to spend an enormous amount in the future, so it needs to continue growing rapidly to outrun those costs and remain profitable," the "Mad Money" host said. "That's the bet you're making if you buy the Anthropic IPO."

The Claude developer became profitable on an adjusted operating basis for the first time in the second quarter of 2026 and remained positive in the third. Through the first nine months of 2026, Anthropic's adjusted operating income totaled $4.08 billion, according to its IPO prospectus. In calculating its adjusted operating income, Anthropic excludes stock-based compensation, noncash charitable contributions, and payments tied to a class-action copyright lawsuit settlement, according to its IPO prospectus. When following generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, Anthropic had an operating loss of $1.26 billion through the third quarter of this year.

"To be clear, Anthropic achieving profitability, even on this adjusted operating income basis, is no small matter," Cramer said.

Another big difference between Anthropic's adjusted results and GAAP numbers appears when looking at net income. This metric appears at the bottom of a company's income statement and serves as the basis for calculating its earnings per share. For 2026, Anthropic reported a net loss of more than $104 billion through September, compared with adjusted net income of $5.6 billion.

Indeed, Cramer emphasized that investors cannot ignore Anthropic's purchase commitments and lease agreements for computing infrastructure. As of September, Anthropic has committed to spending in the future approximately $900 billion, largely on computing infrastructure, according to its prospectus.