Anthropic has become the most valuable AI startup after pushing OpenAI to the second position following the latest funding round. The valuation of Anthropic has reached $965 billion after it successfully
raised $65 billion in Series H funding led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greeoaks and Sequoia Capital, according to the press note.
With this latest funding, Anthropic is very close to reaching the coveted $1 trillion mark, which will happen once it launches its initial public offering (IPO).
Meanwhile, Anthropic’s staunch rival and competitor, OpenAI, stood with a valuation of $852 billion in late March after closing a record-breaking $122 billion funding round.
Comically, Anthropic was founded by former OpenAI executives Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei in 2021. The company’s meteoric rise in the past five years to become the most valuable startup is an extraordinary tale and rising AI-driven sentiment in the world.
Krishna Rao, Chief Financial Officer of Anthropic said that this funding will help us serve the historic demand they are experiencing, stay at the research frontier and bring Claude to more of the places where work happens.
The round was co-led by Capital Group, Coatue, D1 Capital Partners, GIC, ICONIQ, and XN. Significant investors in this round include AMP PBC, Baillie Gifford, Blackstone, Brookfield, D.E. Shaw Ventures, DST Global, Fidelity Management & Research Company, General Catalyst, Insight Partners, Jane Street, Lightspeed Venture Partners, MGX, NTTVC, NX1 Capital, Situational Awareness LP, T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Inc., and Temasek.
Anthropic’s model Claude has emerged as a frontrunner in models, giving a tough competition to its rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Gemini.
“Startups and Global 5000 companies alike are deploying Claude to handle complex workflows, and in doing so, Claude is learning how businesses actually operate: the context, the processes, the judgment,” said Alfred Lin, Partner at Sequoia Capital.
The company has signed agreements with Amazon for up to five gigawatts of new capacity, with Google and Broadcom for five gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity, and with SpaceX for access to GPU capacity in Colossus 1 and Colossus 2.
Anthropic’s revenue has exploded thanks to its popular AI coding assistant, Claude Code. Anthropic also reported a $47 billion revenue run rate on Thursday. That’s up from a $30 billion run rate earlier this year, and $10 billion in annual revenue last year.
Anthropic is preparing to launch its IPO, which is expected to come in October this year.
