That’s the question on investors’ minds when an AI company announces anything from a rogue agent to an earnings report. 

Sure, AI companies continue to increase their revenue, but one lesser discussed metric has investors scared: a slowing growth rate. 

“A handful of AI-linked companies have driven much of the stock market’s gains recently, so any wobble here can ripple through retirement accounts and index funds broadly, not just tech investors,” says Sameer Samana, an adviser and head of global equities and real assets at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

Take Anthropic, which shared its third-quarter results with current and prospective investors on Wednesday, October 14. The company announced that its revenue rose 45% to $16.8 billion, up from $11.6 billion in the previous quarter, CNBC reported.

In theory, it sounds like a successful result, but looking at the bigger picture, it signals a potential slowdown. Anthropic’s revenue had previously risen nearly 60%—from $4.7 billion to $11.6 billion—between quarters one and two.

Yet, the first quarter still beat the entirety of 2025. Anthropic reported $4.6 billion in revenue for the year and $386 million in revenue for 2024, according to Morningstar.

The declining growth rate marks a change for AI companies. “Investor expectations had been getting increasingly optimistic and hoping for ‘fast growth and getting faster.’ Now it’s just ‘fast,’” Samana says. “AI companies are still growing quickly, but not at the eye-popping pace investors had come to expect—and stocks were priced for that pace to continue.” 

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