Anthropic surges past OpenAI with $900B valuation in new funding

Anthropic has raised $65 billion in a new funding round that values the artificial intelligence start-up at $900 billion before the inclusion of the new capital, propelling the company past OpenAI as the world’s most valuable AI lab.

The funding round was led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia Capital, and comes just three months after Anthropic raised $30 billion at a $380 billion valuation.

The latest deal underscores the rapid rise of the San Francisco-based company, which has emerged as one of the dominant players in generative AI.

Anthropic said its annualized revenue run rate crossed $47 billion this month, marking a more than fivefold increase since the start of the year.

The company’s growth has been fueled largely by demand for AI tools that generate software code, an increasingly competitive segment of the AI market.

Rapid rise in the AI race

Anthropic, founded in 2021, was once viewed as a smaller rival to OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.

Its recent growth, however, has accelerated sharply as businesses increasingly adopt AI coding tools.

On Thursday, the company also unveiled Claude Opus 4.8, its latest flagship AI model.

Anthropic said the model significantly improves on previous versions in generating computer code and mathematics.

According to Rayan Krishnan, chief executive of Vals AI, the model outperformed Anthropic’s earlier systems on “vibe coding,” where software is created through conversational English prompts.

Krishnan said Opus 4.8 scored 10% higher on Vals AI’s benchmark tests compared with the company’s previous model.

The company has also gained visibility beyond the technology sector.

In recent months, Anthropic publicly sparred with the Pentagon over the military use of AI and advised Pope Leo XIV on his papal encyclical warning about the disruptive effects of artificial intelligence.

“This funding will help us serve the historic demand we are experiencing, stay at the research frontier, and bring Claude to more of the places where work happens,” said Krishna Rao, Anthropic’s chief financial officer.

Strategic investors back AI infrastructure push

Anthropic’s latest financing included strategic investments from Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix, companies that manufacture memory, storage, and logic chips used in AI computing infrastructure.

In a blog post, Anthropic said the partnerships would help expand the computing power required to support growing demand for Claude Code and its broader AI services.

The company has now raised more than $130 billion since its founding, according to PitchBook.

Its investors include Capital Group, Menlo Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Amazon and Google.

IPO race intensifies

Anthropic’s valuation surge comes amid intensifying competition among leading AI companies as investors increasingly focus on potential public listings.

OpenAI recently raised $122 billion in funding at a valuation of $730 billion, while Elon Musk’s SpaceX has unveiled plans for a public offering that could arrive as soon as next month.

Anthropic insiders have also discussed the possibility of an initial public offering later this year, though the company has not publicly confirmed any timeline.

The latest funding round highlights how quickly investor enthusiasm around generative AI has expanded, particularly for companies developing AI systems capable of automating software development and other technical tasks.