AI start-up Anthropic to raise US$2 billion at US$60 billion valuation, sources say
The new funding will mark a jump in valuation for Anthropic, a major competitor of OpenAI in the foundation model space
AI start-up Anthropic is near a deal to raise an additional US$2 billion at a price that values the company at $60 billion, sources said, months after its US$4 billion funding from Amazon.
Venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners is leading the funding round, according to the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private matters.
The new funding, US$6 billion in total, will mark a jump in valuation for Anthropic, a major competitor of OpenAI in the foundation model space. Anthropic was valued at around US$18 billion in a fundraise led by Menlo Ventures last year.
Anthropic declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal first reported the funding on Tuesday.
Amazon late last year doubled its investment in the start-up to US$8 billion, as the e-commerce giant went up against Big Tech rivals in a race to capitalise on generative AI technology. The latest US$4 billion issued to Amazon in convertible notes will be converted into equity through this round.
Anthropic, whose annualised revenue hit about US$875 million, sells access to its models directly and through third-party cloud services including Amazon Web Services. The large language models development requires expensive computing, as well as top talents.
