Anthropic is reportedly seeking to complete a new funding round at a $900 billion valuation. If successful, this would mark the first time the AI startup's valuation exceeds that of its rival OpenAI, highlighting a rapid narrowing of the valuation gap between the two companies in just a few months.
According to a report on April 29th, a person familiar with the matter revealed that Anthropic is currently in discussions with investors regarding this financing. No term sheet has been signed yet, and negotiations are ongoing. Bloomberg first reported on the potential funding plan.
One of the direct drivers for this fundraising is Anthropic's recent launch of its new model, Claude Mythos Preview—an AI model with advanced cybersecurity capabilities. This model has already prompted high-level meetings among former Trump administration officials, tech company CEOs, and bank executives. The company needs to raise funds to purchase the computing power required to run the model.
Simultaneously, Anthropic's commercialization efforts are accelerating. The company announced earlier this month that its annualized revenue has reached $30 billion, while its full-year revenue for the previous year was approximately $10 billion, indicating significant growth.
If completed at the $900 billion valuation, this funding round would represent a substantial leap for Anthropic. As recently as February, the company was valued at $380 billion.
In contrast, OpenAI completed a record-breaking $122 billion funding round at the end of March, achieving an $852 billion valuation. Strategic investors in that round included Amazon.com (committing up to $50 billion), NVIDIA ($30 billion), and SoftBank ($30 billion).
Should Anthropic's current funding round proceed successfully, its valuation would surpass OpenAI's by approximately $40 billion, a development with significant symbolic importance in the competitive landscape of the AI industry. Anthropic was founded five years ago by former OpenAI executives and has been playing catch-up with the industry pioneer since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022.
The core factor driving this funding round is reportedly the launch of Claude Mythos Preview this month. This model, which boasts advanced cybersecurity capabilities, is currently available only to select enterprises and has garnered significant attention in Washington D.C. and Wall Street, leading to multiple high-level meetings involving former Trump administration officials, tech company CEOs, and banking executives.
According to reports, running the Mythos model requires substantial computing resources, which is a key reason behind Anthropic's search for new capital.
Just days before the Mythos release, Anthropic also launched Claude Opus 4.7, positioning it as the most powerful model currently available to the public. The successive unveiling of these two models has further strengthened market expectations regarding Anthropic's technological capabilities.
Securing computing power has become a central focus of Anthropic's recent strategic deployments.
Earlier this month, Anthropic signed an agreement with Amazon.com centered on AI infrastructure. Under this agreement, Amazon.com agreed to invest up to $25 billion in Anthropic, while Anthropic gained access to up to 5 gigawatts of computing capacity for training and deploying its Claude series of models.
Concurrently, through collaborations with Google and Broadcom, Anthropic has secured an additional 5 gigawatts of computing power, with the related capacity expected to come online next year. Google also announced plans this month to invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic.
The two computing power agreements, totaling 10 gigawatts, demonstrate Anthropic's intent for large-scale infrastructure expansion and lay a resource foundation for supporting the training and inference of its next-generation models.
On the commercialization front, Anthropic's growth momentum is equally notable. The company announced this month that its annualized revenue has reached $30 billion, compared to approximately $10 billion for the full year 2024, indicating a substantial expansion of its revenue scale in a short period.
This growth is largely attributed to the widespread adoption of its AI programming assistant, Claude Code. Over the past year, this product has accumulated a large user base, becoming a major engine for Anthropic's commercialization.
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