Anthropic, the artificial intelligence startup founded by former OpenAI executives, is reportedly in late-stage discussions to secure up to $2 billion in funding at a valuation of $60 billion.
The funding round is led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, according to a CNBC report, the development, highlights Anthropic’s rapid growth in the competitive generative AI space.
Anthropic is renowned for its AI chatbot, Claude, which rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
Claude has gained traction among businesses integrating generative AI into sales, marketing, and customer service operations.
The company’s annualized revenue is estimated at $875 million, driven primarily by enterprise sales.
In September 2024, Anthropic launched Claude Enterprise, a product designed to help businesses leverage AI for advanced operations focus on enterprise solutions
Key investors
Anthropic has attracted significant investments from tech giants Amazon and Google.
- In November 2024, Amazon announced an additional $4 billion investment in the startup, bringing its total stake to $8 billion. Despite this, Amazon remains a minority investor without a board seat.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) has become Anthropic’s “primary cloud and training partner,” providing the company with Trainium and Inferentia chips to train and deploy its largest AI models.
Google, another major backer, committed $2 billion to Anthropic in 2023, acquiring a 10% stake and establishing a cloud partnership.
Advanced AI capabilities
Anthropic continues to push the boundaries of AI technology. In October 2024, the company unveiled its Computer Use capability, enabling its AI agents to perform complex tasks on computers.
Jared Kaplan, Anthropic’s Chief Science Officer, described the feature as “The tool can ‘use computers in basically the same way that we do.’”
Kaplan noted that the technology could execute tasks with “tens or even hundreds of steps,” such as interpreting screens, clicking buttons, and navigating websites.
The generative AI market heats up.
Anthropic’s funding round highlights the intensifying competition in the generative AI sector, where companies like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Meta are vying for dominance.
With the market projected to exceed $1 trillion in revenue within a decade, the stakes are high for startups and tech giants alike.
Anthropic’s advancements and enterprise-focused offerings position it as a key player in this rapidly evolving industry, attracting substantial investments and solidifying its role in shaping the future of AI.
What you should know
Venture capitalists (VCs) invested a record $97 billion into artificial intelligence startups in the U.S. in 2024, according to PitchBook data.
This funding surge reflects the growing dominance of AI companies, which received almost half of the total $209 billion raised by U.S. startups last year, marking the highest portion on record. Major recipients of these funds included companies like Elon Musk’s xAI, OpenAI, and Anthropic, which secured multibillion-dollar rounds.
While overall startup funding saw a one-third increase from 2023, the amount raised by venture capitalists themselves showed signs of decline. VCs raised $76.1 billion across 508 funds, the lowest number since 2014 and the lowest dollar amount since 2019.
