[gwd]

> Why don't they count it as revenue the moment the credits are issued?

You've gotten the revenue but you haven't paid the cost for that revenue yet. Those are essentially un-cashed checks that the accountants have to keep on the books indefinitely otherwise. Imagine you're chugging along and out of the blue someone shows up with $100M of credits they bought 10 years ago, expecting you to do something for them. Now you're using electricity and displacing new revenue for money that may be long gone.

[lubujackson]

Makes sense. Just like how when you put money in the bank they have to put it in a big vault and not touch it so you can access it in the future. Oh wait... rules for thee and not for me.

[gwd]

Not sure what you mean... banks definitely have to worry about people unexpectedly coming and asking for all their money back [1]. The difference is, that risk management is the bank's core business. That's not the business Anthropic wants to be in.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_run

[Etheryte]

Banks have very strict legal rules about minimum balance sheets. They don't have to have 100% coverage, but that doesn't mean it isn't there.

[throwaway4496]

A fraction of it, it is called fractional reserve banking for a reason.