Anthropic estimates that the work performed by knowledge workers represented more than $40 trillion in economic value worldwide in 2025, putting a large figure on the work it hopes artificial intelligence can help people do more productively.
The estimate appears in the company’s S-1 registration statement, in a section titled “A Near-Term Opportunity to Transform Cognitive Work.” It is Anthropic’s estimate of economic activity associated with workers, not a valuation of Anthropic, a revenue forecast or the amount it plans to raise from investors.
“We believe the work that knowledge workers perform represented more than $40 trillion in economic value globally in 2025,” the filing says.
What the $40 trillion figure measures
Anthropic defines cognitive work as the use of knowledge, reasoning and judgment to create economic value. Its argument is that more capable AI could help people perform that work more efficiently and expand the amount they can accomplish.
The filing’s methodology section gives the number a more specific meaning: it describes estimates of global knowledge workers’ wages as the annual economic value represented by those workers.
Anthropic says those estimates are its own, derived from outside data. It starts with 2025 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data by occupation, selecting the workers it considers knowledge workers. It also uses International Labor Organization data on labor income as a share of global output, together with 2025 global output, to estimate global wages.
That makes the figure an estimate built from wage data and company judgments about which occupations to include. It is not a reported total of spending on AI software.
A business opportunity, not a promise of revenue
The company says its near-term opportunity is to increase the value of that work by making people more productive. The filing does not turn the more-than-$40-trillion figure into a claim that Anthropic can collect that amount.
In the same discussion, Anthropic says it is still early to forecast AI’s full economic impact. Its market-data section warns that estimates involve assumptions and limitations and says the company has not independently verified the accuracy or completeness of the outside data it uses.
The SEC filing index dates the registration statement to October 26. JBizNews previously covered the IPO filing; the knowledge-work estimate is a separate part of the company’s case for its business.
The distinction matters for workers, businesses and investors: the economic value of work that AI might assist is not the same as the revenue an AI provider will earn from assisting it.
JBizNews Desk | Technology
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