Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup founded by former OpenAI executives, is reportedly in late-stage discussions to raise up to $2 billion at a $60 billion valuation. This funding round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, follows significant investments from Amazon and Google, positioning Anthropic firmly in the competitive landscape of generative AI. Known for its AI chatbot, Claude, the startup has gained traction alongside competitors like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini as businesses increasingly adopt generative AI in various sectors, including sales and customer service.
With annualized revenue around $875 million primarily from enterprise sales, Anthropic has attracted substantial backing, including Amazon’s recent commitment of an additional $4 billion, raising its total investment to $8 billion. Google also invested $2 billion last year and has established a cloud partnership with Anthropic. The startup’s recent developments include innovative capabilities for its AI agents to perform complex tasks on computers, potentially rivaling similar functions expected from OpenAI. Anthropic’s product offerings are expanding, highlighted by the introduction of Claude Enterprise and its more advanced AI model, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, as the company continues to advance in the rapidly evolving AI sector.
