(April 15): Anthropic PBC has received several offers from investors for a new round of funding that could value the artificial intelligence (AI) startup at about US$800 billion or higher — overtures that the Claude maker has so far resisted, according to people familiar with the matter.
The offers would more than double the US$350 billion pre-money valuation Anthropic attached to its US$30 billion fundraising in February.
The discussions between Anthropic and investors are still early and a deal could fail to materialise or the details could change, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Business Insider previously reported some details of the talks. Anthropic declined to comment.
Anthropic has released a series of AI tools aimed at overhauling the way businesses handle tasks from coding to cybersecurity. Those products are resonating with a growing base of business customers, leading to a surge in revenue and rising competition with rival OpenAI.
While Anthropic hasn’t ruled out raising new money in the coming months, according to one of the people, it’s not clear the company will accept investors’ terms or if it will raise at an US$800 billion value.
Anthropic has also discussed a public listing as soon as October, Bloomberg has reported.
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Investors have been impressed by Anthropic’s strong revenue growth, particularly with deep-pocketed enterprise customers. Earlier this month, the startup said it had reached US$30 billion in annual run-rate revenue, marking a sharp increase from US$19 billion just a few months before.
Anthropic has risen in prominence recently after a disagreement with the US Defense Department over the safety of using its AI tools. The company also recently unveiled a new model, Mythos, that it said would be irresponsible to release widely because it can identify and exploit software vulnerabilities.
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