AI startup Anthropic, another OpenAI ChatGPT rival with its AI assistant Claude, is reportedly in talks to raise $2 billion, which would value the chatbot startup at a whopping $60 billion.
According to The Wall Street Journal, sources familiar with the matter revealed that Lightspeed Venture Partners is leading the funding round.
Last fall, Amazon agreed to invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic for a minority stake in the startup, bringing its total investment since 2023 to $8 billion. Amazon’s November investment was a convertible note.
Other investors in Anthropic include Google, Menlo Ventures, Wisdom Ventures, Ripple Impact Investments, and Factorial Funds.
Several months ago, Microsoft-backed OpenAI raised $6.6 billion at a $157 billion valuation. Last month, Elon Musk’s xAI raised $6 billion from BlackRock, Fidelity, and Sequoia Capital at a $40 billion valuation.
An individual familiar with Anthropic’s annualized revenue—an extrapolation of the next 12 months’ revenue based on recent sales—stated that this figure recently reached $875 million.
The Anthropic deal would make it the fifth-most valuable US startup, trailing SpaceX, OpenAI, Stripe, and Databricks, according to data from CB Insights. The company was valued at $18 billion in a round led by Menlo Ventures last year.
Meanwhile, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei penned an op-ed in WSJ on Monday, emphasizing, “The nations that are first to build powerful AI systems will gain a strategic advantage over its development,” adding, “Incoming Trump administration officials can take steps to ensure the U.S. and its allies lead in developing this technology.”
Sustaining these lofty valuations is troubling, given that many of these AI startups are operating at a loss. OpenAI’s Sam Altman admitted on X on Sunday that his company continues to lose money.
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