On August 21, according to Bloomberg, AI startup Anthropic is approaching a new funding deal worth up to $10 billion, doubling the previous target of $5 billion, highlighting investors' strong confidence in the generative AI field.
Top Investment Institutions Compete to Enter
This round of financing is led by investment company Iconiq Capital, with several well-known investment institutions such as TPG, Lightspeed, Spark Capital, and Menlo Ventures showing interest in participating. Notably, sovereign wealth funds such as Qatar Investment Authority and Singapore's GIC are also in discussions to join, showing the high recognition of international capital for the future of AI technology.
It is reported that Anthropic initially sought to raise up to $5 billion at a valuation of $170 billion, but the strong investor interest pushed the company to significantly increase its fundraising goal to $10 billion. The financing negotiations are still ongoing, and the final amount may change.
Technical Leadership Drives Valuation Surge
The significant increase in Anthropic's valuation mainly stems from its technical leadership in the field of generative AI. The company's Claude large language model series has gained widespread recognition in the industry, especially in technological breakthroughs in intelligent agent systems, which have won the favor of investors. Claude has become one of the three AI services approved for use by US government agencies, along with Google's Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT.
According to data disclosed by the company to some investors, Anthropic's annualized revenue increased fourfold in the first half of this year, exceeding $4 billion. This growth momentum indicates that despite the entire industry still being in a phase of heavy investment, leading AI companies have already demonstrated strong commercialization capabilities.
The Arms Race Among AI Giants Intensifies
This round of financing will provide sufficient financial support for Anthropic's fierce competition with OpenAI and Elon Musk's xAI. Since the beginning of this year, these AI companies have all raised billions of dollars to invest in data center infrastructure and recruit top talent to develop next-generation AI models.
Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former employees of OpenAI, positioning itself as a reliable and safety-focused AI company. Earlier this year, the company received a valuation of $61.5 billion in a $3.5 billion financing led by Lightspeed. After this new round of financing, its valuation will jump nearly three times, further solidifying its position as a leading player in the global AI development market.
This significant increase in financing scale reflects the optimistic expectations of the investment market regarding the commercial prospects of generative AI technology, and also signals that competition in the AI field will become even more intense.
