NEW YORK: Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is weighing raising funds in a new round that would value the Claude maker at more than US$900 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
* The company is entertaining offers at more than double its current valuation, though the considerations are at an early stage and no offers have been accepted yet, the report said.
* Anthropic, which raised US$30 billion at a valuation of US$380 billion in February, declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
* The company has received multiple preemptive offers to raise fresh capital of around US$50 billion at a valuation in the range of US$850 billion to US$900 billion, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
* Anthropic is expected to make a decision on the round and its valuation at a board meeting in May, TechCrunch said.
* If Anthropic closes a round at the reported valuation, it could dethrone OpenAI, valued at US$852 billion in March, as the world's most valuable AI startup.
* The fundraising push comes ahead of a potential IPO, which may be launched as soon as October, the Bloomberg report said.
* Anthropic was resisting investment proposals at valuations of US$800 billion or more, earlier reports had said, as major backers Alphabet's Google and Amazon continued to announce multi-billion-dollar performance-based investments. - Reuters