Anthropic is closing in on a $1 trillion valuation, and the speed of the deal tells you everything about where investor confidence in the artificial intelligence sector now sits.
Three months after raising $30 billion at a $350 billion valuation, the company is on the verge of nearly tripling that figure, the Financial Times reported Friday (May 15), leapfrogging rival OpenAI in the process.
For payments and FinTech professionals, the numbers signal that enterprise AI spending is accelerating fast enough to reshape capital markets in real time.
Anthropic agreed terms on a new $30 billion funding round that would value the company at $900 billion, not including the new capital, the report said. The round is expected to close as soon as this month.
Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia Capital and Altimeter Capital agreed to co-lead the raise, with each firm expected to invest $2 billion or more, according to the report. Anthropic is still in discussions with additional investors to fill out the remainder of the round, and final terms could change before a formal announcement.
The round came together quickly, per the report.
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“Anthropic was approached by investors last month, and chief financial officer Krishna Rao initiated talks with prospective backers in the past two weeks,” the report said.
Anthropic’s annualized revenues are expected to cross $45 billion imminently, a fivefold increase from $9 billion at the end of last year, according to the report. Anthropic’s revenues appear to have surpassed OpenAI’s, although the two companies use different accounting methods.
Big Tech is not expected to participate in the current round, although Amazon and Google have previously provided tens of billions of dollars in backing, the report said. Three of the four lead investors, Dragoneer, Sequoia and Altimeter, are also backers of OpenAI, valued in March at $852 billion.
Earlier this month, Anthropic debuted 10 new financial services-focused AI agents designed to automate tasks, including know your customer (KYC) checks and pitchbook creation, while expanding partnerships with Dun & Bradstreet, Verisk and Moody’s.
Also this month, the company launched Claude for Small Business, which wires Claude into QuickBooks, PayPal and HubSpot to handle invoicing, payroll planning and contract routing.
In March, Anthropic debuted the Claude Marketplace, which positions the company as a central procurement hub for enterprise AI tools built on its models.
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