Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has announced a new $65bn funding round that values the company at $965bn, surpassing the valuation of rival OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
The latest fundraising round further cements Anthropic’s position as one of the leading players in the global AI industry. The company, led by former OpenAI executive Dario Amodei, has gained recognition for its advanced coding capabilities and state-of-the-art AI models.
Anthropic’s rapid growth has largely been driven by its strategy of focusing on enterprise clients rather than general consumers, a different path from the one initially pursued by OpenAI.
Founded by former OpenAI employees, including Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei, Anthropic has maintained a strong emphasis on AI safety while continuing to develop and release competitive AI products.
“This funding will help us serve the historic demand we are experiencing, stay at the research frontier, and bring Claude to more of the places where work happens,” said Anthropic Chief Financial Officer Krishna Rao.
The company’s near-trillion-dollar valuation places it ahead of OpenAI, which was valued at $852bn in March. Industry analysts believe both companies could potentially launch public offerings later this year.
Anthropic’s funding round was led by major Silicon Valley venture capital firms including Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia Capital.
The investment package also included $15bn in previously committed funding from major cloud computing companies, including $5bn from Amazon.
Semiconductor companies Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix also joined the round as strategic infrastructure partners because of their role in supplying critical technology components used in AI systems.
Anthropic stated that Claude has become the first frontier AI model available across the world’s three largest cloud platforms — Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
The funding announcement comes as the company faces a legal dispute with the Pentagon after Anthropic sued the United States Department of Defense over its designation as a supply chain risk.
Anthropic described the move as unconstitutional retaliation following its refusal to provide the military with unrestricted access to its AI models.
The company also highlighted the capabilities of Mythos, its next-generation AI model designed with advanced cybersecurity functions.
According to Anthropic, the powerful model has not been released publicly because of its sensitive capabilities. Instead, access has been restricted to selected security partners.
