Anthropic, the operator of Claude, has been valued at $965 billion (approximately 1,451 trillion won), overtaking ChatGPT operator OpenAI to take the top spot among artificial intelligence (AI) startups worldwide.
Anthropic said Tuesday it raised $65 billion (approximately 97 trillion won) in a new funding round led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group and Greenoaks Capital. A person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that "major investors each contributed more than $2 billion." The company's valuation, set at $852 billion in March, surged to $965 billion, surpassing OpenAI's $852 billion. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are pursuing initial public offerings (IPOs) this fall.
The funding round also included $15 billion previously committed by hyperscalers. Alphabet's subsidiary Google deployed several billion dollars as part of its $40 billion investment commitment, while Amazon contributed $5 billion under its existing pledge.
Anthropic is also reviewing what would be the largest private loan ever raised for AI chip financing, aimed at securing Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). According to Bloomberg, Anthropic is pursuing a $36 billion (approximately 54 trillion won) debt financing deal through global private equity firms Apollo and Blackstone. As rising demand for AI chips has established a structure in which special purpose vehicles (SPVs) created by private equity funds purchase and lease chips, the pre-IPO Anthropic is borrowing on the credit of global semiconductor fabless company Broadcom.
Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers, Anthropic has shown steep growth as it develops AI tools tailored for corporate tasks ranging from coding to cybersecurity. According to Bloomberg, Anthropic told investors that its annual recurring revenue (ARR) will surpass $50 billion by the end of next month — more than a 12-fold increase from $4 billion in July last year.
