Connect your Claude, Codex or OpenClaw for full transcripts on millions of podcasts. Two week free trial, cancel anytime.

Start free trial →
RR Ranjan Roy Co-writes Margins, a newsletter on tech, media and markets, with Can Duruk.

“You cannot leak financials this close to an IPO. That never happens. That is not how any of this works. And still, after all of this, these targeted leaks that are trying to reinforce a narrative, that make every audited financial in this entire process meaningless and a joke, continue.”

Big Technology · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · November 2026

“You cannot leak financials this close to an IPO. That never happens. That is not how any of this works. And still, after all of this, these targeted leaks that are trying to reinforce a narrative, that make every audited financial in this entire process meaningless and a joke, continue.” — Ranjan Roy, Big Technology

Context

Ranjan was reacting to a Wall Street Journal report, citing a person familiar, about Anthropic's October run rate. He was annoyed that numbers keep leaking so close to the IPO.

Transcript

Big Technology Around 22:45 into the episode
Ranjan Roy

…part of the IPO story because everyone who is a little bit concerned about those commitments now potentially there's a way out, even though I've always argued that they were never really legally binding. They're always kind of, you know, wink-wink, nudge, nudge, at least how I see this playing out.

Alex Kantrowitz

You're sending the lawyer to squirm out of those commitments. You were ready. You were just waiting for me. I was ready.

Ranjan Roy

I didn't need a popsicle soup. I just needed, I wasn't hungry anymore. And that would get me out enough.

Alex Kantrowitz

That's right. Turns out those popsicles aren't as nutritious as you thought, which maybe you should have thought before you made those commitments to buy them, but whatever. But we won't relitigate that contract. Let's actually talk about what this means for the Anthropic IPO. Because the reports…

Ranjan Roy

Oh, man. Okay. I just have to go off a little bit here. That I don't know if you did you see today in the Wall Street Journal that there was a leak and a person familiar with the matter leaks that now Anthropic for October is showing an $80 billion run rate. You cannot leak financials this close to…

Alex Kantrowitz

Well, let me ask you this. Would you leak those numbers if you thought the IPO was imminent? Or would you leak those numbers because you thought, given the current environment, you were postponing the IPO anyway and you wanted to get the narrative out? Because this is an interesting headline from…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

More from Big Technology