Anthropic, the AI startup founded by former OpenAI executives, is reportedly nearing a major funding round of up to $2 billion, which would value the company at $60 billion. According to CNBC, Lightspeed Venture Partners is leading the round.
Known for its AI chatbot Claude, which rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, Anthropic has quickly gained traction. Businesses are increasingly adopting Claude for applications in sales, marketing, and customer service, boosting the company’s annualized revenue to an estimated $875 million.
In September 2024, Anthropic launched Claude Enterprise, tailored to help businesses harness AI for advanced operations. This has solidified its standing in the market.
Anthropic has also attracted significant investments from tech giants like Amazon and Google. In November 2024, Amazon announced an additional $4 billion investment, bringing its total stake to $8 billion, though it remains a minority investor. Amazon Web Services (AWS) serves as Anthropic’s primary cloud and training partner, providing cutting-edge chips like Trainium and Inferentia for training and deploying AI models.
Google, another major backer, invested $2 billion in 2023, acquiring a 10% stake and establishing a key cloud partnership with Anthropic.
The company continues to push AI boundaries. In October 2024, Anthropic unveiled its Computer Use capability, allowing AI agents to perform complex, multi-step tasks on computers. Jared Kaplan, the Chief Science Officer, described this feature as enabling AI to “use computers in basically the same way that we do,” performing tasks with “tens or even hundreds of steps.”
Anthropic’s funding round showcases the fierce competition in the generative AI space, with giants like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Meta vying for leadership. As the market is projected to surpass $1 trillion in revenue within a decade, Anthropic’s innovations and enterprise focus position it as a key player in shaping AI’s future.
According to PitchBook, venture capitalists poured a record $97 billion into AI startups in the U.S. in 2024, reflecting AI’s growing dominance. This represented nearly half of the total $209 billion raised by U.S. startups, marking an all-time high. Companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Elon Musk’s xAI were major beneficiaries of this funding surge.
