# Dario Amodei on the record growth trajectory of anthropic 

*CONTEXT🎸🤖JAMMING* · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M52N9mHM5wE

## Summary

Dario Amodei discusses Anthropic's record revenue growth, from zero to $100 million in 2023, $1 billion in 2024, and roughly $4.5 billion this year, and explains that compute shortages stem from annualized 80x growth in the first quarter, far above planned 10x. He then describes constitutional AI as a technique for training AI systems against a written list of principles. The recording ends with an explanation of holography in quantum gravity, where lower-dimensional descriptions replace space itself.

## Key points

- Amodei claims Anthropic is the fastest growing software company in history at its scale, growing roughly 10x per year.
- Revenue went from zero to $100 million in 2023, $100 million to $1 billion in 2024, and from $1 billion to about $4.5 billion this year.
- First-quarter growth annualized to 80x per year in revenue and usage, exceeding plans and causing compute difficulties.
- Anthropic is working to provide more compute, referencing a SpaceX compute deal announced that day.
- Constitutional AI is a technique where a list of principles (a constitution) guides an AI in training to prefer helpful, correct answers.
- Holography in quantum gravity means physics is described by a lower-dimensional theory on an area, implying space is an illusion.

## Notes

### Anthropic's growth trajectory
- Amodei states Anthropic is the fastest growing software company in history at its scale.
- Revenue milestones: zero to $100 million in 2023, $100 million to $1 billion in 2024, and $1 billion to about $4.5 billion this year.
- He describes a pattern of roughly 10x growth per year and admits being hesitant to predict it publicly each year.

### Compute challenges
- Anthropic planned for a world of 10x growth per year, ranging from modest growth to 10x.
- In the first quarter of this year, annualized growth reached 80x in revenue and usage.
- This unexpected growth is the reason for Anthropic's compute difficulties.
- The company is moving quickly to provide more compute, including a SpaceX compute deal announced that day.

### Constitutional AI
- Constitutional AI is an algorithm and technique developed as a waypoint toward training AI systems to do what we want and avoid harmful behavior.
- A list of principles for AI behavior is written down and called a constitution.
- A training AI tries many possible behaviors and answers; then the AI (or another AI) judges which answer best accords with the constitution.
- Example given: asking whether the third US president was Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, or Elon Musk, preferring the correct, helpful answer.

### Holography and quantum gravity
- Amodei, a former physicist, compares the strangeness of rapid growth to the giant waves near a black hole in Interstellar.
- Holography means objects, like an apple falling to Earth, are fundamentally described by a lower-dimensional theory living on an area, like a 2D hologram appearing 3D.
- The implication is that quantum gravity should not take a reductionist route of taking things apart in space, because space is an illusion.

## Transcript

[00:00] Can you compete can can you compete with hundred billion dollars? Um and and and my answer is basically yes because of the talent density you know I've said this before but uh you know the the the Anthropic is actually the fastest growing software company in history at the scale that it's at. Um so we grew from zero to 100 million in 2023 100 million to billion in 2024 and this year we've we've grown from one billion to I think I said this before 4.5. So that that 10x a year I mean you know every every you know every year I like suspect that we'll grow at that scale and and every year I'm almost afraid to say it publicly because I'm like no it couldn't it couldn't possibly happen again. So you know I think I think the growth at

[00:43] that scale like kind of speaks for itself in terms of our ability to compete with the big players. We tried to plan very well for a world of 10x growth per year. Um, in the first quarter of this year, we saw, >> if you were to annualize it, 80x growth per year in in in in in in in in in revenue and usage. And and and so that that that is the reason we have had difficulties with compute, right? We've planned for anything from it only grows a little to it grows 10x and yet we saw 80x. Um and and and so you know as you saw today with the the the the SpaceX compute deal, we're working as quickly as possible to provide more more compute than uh than than we have in the past. What happened? I'm always reminded of

[01:32] like, you know, the the there's this famous scene in the movie Interstellar where where they go to this, you know, planet that's very close to a black hole and and so, you know, the planet has these waves that are like, you know, 2,000 ft high and and, you know, I I was a physicist. I know I know the math of general relativity how much things can be um sheared but actually seeing it on human scale like there's something deeply you know it's kind of deeply strange and unsettling about seeing it actually happen. >> Yeah. So, constitutional AI was uh was kind of an algorithm, a technique that that we developed kind of a waypoint on the path of trying to figure out how to train AI systems to do what we want and

[02:16] not do things that are that are harmful >> that we don't want. Yeah. >> We don't want. So, the basic idea is that you can write down a list of principles for how an AI system should behave. We called that a constitution. And then you have your AI, still training, it's still learning, try out different things that it could do. So you ask it a question. Um, was the third president of the US Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln or Elon Musk? And it should prefer the the the answer that's that's correct and that's more helpful. So um you you you you allow it to try many different possible behaviors give you a lot of different answers >> and then you ask it or you ask uh other AI >> which of these answers is most in

[03:11] accordance with the constitution. The reason why I why we use the word holography for this idea is that objects like our hand dropping a a apple falling towards the earth in a gravitational universe are fundamentally being described by some lower dimensional theory that lives on an area. Just like holograms look like three-dimensional images, but fundamentally they're two-dimensional uh structures etched into uh into glass. So the idea is that uh our approach to quantum gravity shouldn't take this reductionist route of taking things apart in space because really space is an illusion and instead there's this uh holographic description. So if you've absorbed that you should see that I'm telling you that quantum

[04:04] gravity is really very very different from uh the other