AI startup Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot, is finalizing a $3.5 billion funding round, bringing its valuation to $61.5 billion. This funding highlights investors’ willingness to back promising artificial intelligence companies, despite concerns sparked by the success of China’s DeepSeek.
Originally, Anthropic aimed to raise $2 billion, but managed to increase the amount during talks with investors. Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, the startup was previously valued at $18 billion and is considered one of the few AI startups with enough talent and funding to compete with OpenAI.
Investors in the latest round include venture firms Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst, and Bessemer Venture Partners. Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX is also in talks to participate.
Anthropic trails market leader OpenAI among consumer users, but its Claude chatbot has become popular among programmers and business clients. The startup’s annualized revenue recently hit about $1.2 billion.
Some Silicon Valley investors have been worried about the prospects of companies like Anthropic since DeepSeek released a new model that rivals the most powerful in the U.S., but was made at a fraction of the cost and is free to use.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a blog post arguing that DeepSeek’s accomplishments didn’t change the economic calculus for developing AI technology. The larger funding shows that investors are still willing to bet on companies like Anthropic that develop proprietary AI models.
Source: The Wall Street Journal (WSJ)
