# Krishna Rao - Anthropic's CFO on Compute, Scaling to $30B ARR, and the Returns to Frontier Intelligence - [Invest Like the Best, EP.472]

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/invest-like-the-best/krishna-rao-anthropic-s-cfo-on-compute-scaling-to-30b-arr-and-the-returns-to-frontier-intelligence-invest-like-the-best-ep-472
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/invest-like-the-best/krishna-rao-anthropic-s-cfo-on-compute-scaling-to-30b-arr-and-the-returns-to-frontier-intelligence-invest-like-the-best-ep-472.md
Podcast: [Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy](https://stenobird.com/podcast/invest-like-the-best)
Published: 2026-05-13T08:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://colossus.com/episode/cone-of-uncertainty/
Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/CLS3629415437.mp3?updated=1778621552
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Duration seconds: 4567

## Resource

My guest today is Krishna Rao, the CFO of Anthropic. The center of our conversation is how he navigates the decision around procuring and allocating compute, which he describes as the canvas on which everything else gets built. We talk about what he calls the cone of uncertainty, the three chip platforms Anthropic uses fungibly across Trainium, TPUs, and GPUs, and the daily meetings they run to allocate compute between model development, internal use, and serving customer demand. He explains why the returns to frontier intelligence keep getting higher, especially in enterprise, and how Anthropic thinks about the line between platform and application and why they choose to build their own products like Claude Code. Krishna has such a unique seat watching one of the fastest growing businesses in history, and he is generous in sharing what he has learned since joining the company two years ago. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ----- Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠. ----- ⁠Ramp’s⁠ mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ramp.com/invest⁠⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- Trusted by thousands of businesses, ⁠Vanta⁠ continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Invest Like the Best listeners get a special offer of $1,000 off Vanta when you go to ⁠vanta.com/invest⁠. ---…

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