By Shirin Ghaffary, Natasha Mascarenhas and Ed Ludlow
Anthropic PBC has begun weighing a fresh funding round that would value the artificial intelligence developer at more than $900 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, potentially leapfrogging its longtime rival OpenAI as the world’s most valuable AI startup.
The Claude maker is entertaining offers from investors that would more than double its current valuation, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information is not public. The considerations are at a very early stage and the company has yet to accept any offers, the people said.
Anthropic had previously resisted several inbound proposals from investors for a new round at a valuation of $800 billion or more, Bloomberg News has reported.
The new discussions, which have not been reported, coincide with a push by Anthropic to ramp up fundraising amid the breakout success of its AI software. Anthropic, which Bloomberg has reported is considering an initial public offering as soon as October, has been on the hunt for more infrastructure to meet growing demand for its products.
Anthropic declined to comment.
Google recently committed to invest $10 billion in Anthropic at a $350 billion valuation, the same amount it was valued at in a funding round in February. The Alphabet Inc.-owned company plans to invest up to another $30 billion in Anthropic if the startup hits certain performance targets.
Amazon.com Inc. is also investing $5 billion in Anthropic at a $350 billion valuation, with plans to inject $20 billion more over time. It’s unclear whether those two firms will be part of the upcoming funding round.
Founded in 2021 by a group of former OpenAI employees, Anthropic has since emerged as a leader in the AI sector. Anthropic has developed a series of AI tools aimed at overhauling the way businesses handle tasks from coding to cybersecurity.
In early April, the company unveiled a new model called Mythos that is purportedly able to detect and exploit vulnerabilities in a wide range of critical software. Anthropic deemed it to be too dangerous for wide release and has instead let a limited group of companies begin testing it on their own systems. However, the model has been accessed by a small group of unauthorized users, Bloomberg News has reported.
As Anthropic has gained momentum, it’s put new pressure on OpenAI, which is also widely expected to go public as soon as this year. The ChatGPT maker has reportedly missed some of its own targets for revenue and user growth as it contends with competition from Anthropic and Google.
OpenAI has taken steps to streamline its sprawling product portfolio to focus on AI agents and a new model. The company was most recently valued at $852 billion in a funding round completed in March.
