OpenAI's strong competitor Anthropic plans to raise $2 billion, with a valuation reaching $60 billion
Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic plans to raise up to $2 billion at a valuation of $60 billion, with financing led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Anthropic's annual revenue is approximately $875 million, primarily from enterprise customers. Amazon has become its largest investor, committing to invest $8 billion. Google has also invested $2 billion and holds a 10% stake. Anthropic is in fierce competition in the generative AI field with companies like OpenAI and Google
On January 7th, Tuesday, Eastern Time, CNBC confirmed that Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup founded by former OpenAI research executives, plans to raise up to $2 billion at a valuation of $60 billion.
According to insiders, this round of financing is led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Anthropic is currently in the late stages of financing negotiations.
Anthropic's Financing Scale Continues to Expand
Anthropic is the developer of the AI chatbot Claude. Similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, Claude has quickly gained popularity in the business world and is widely used in sales, marketing, and customer service. Insiders reveal that Anthropic's current annualized revenue is approximately $875 million, primarily from enterprise clients.
Currently, Anthropic is engaged in a fierce generative AI arms race with OpenAI and tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta. These companies are all vying for a share of the AI market, which is expected to exceed $1 trillion in revenue over the next decade.
Notably, Amazon has become a significant supporter of Anthropic, adding an additional $4 billion investment in November 2024, bringing its total investment to $8 billion, making it Anthropic's largest investor. The two parties have established a close strategic partnership, collaborating on utilizing Amazon Web Services' self-developed chips, Trainium and Inferentia, to train and deploy its largest AI models. Anthropic confirmed to CNBC that Amazon remains a minority shareholder without a board seat.
Google had previously committed to investing $2 billion in Anthropic and has confirmed holding a 10% stake in the company, while the two companies have signed a large cloud computing contract. Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI, is also supporting other generative AI startups through substantial investments and continuously advancing its own AI technology.
While increasing its R&D efforts, Anthropic is also continuously launching new products to drive technological innovation. In October of last year, Anthropic announced that its AI agents had acquired the ability to perform complex tasks on computers like humans. The new feature enables its AI to interpret content on computer screens, select buttons, input text, browse websites, and execute tasks using real-time internet browsing. The company's Chief Scientist, Jared Kaplan, stated that this technology can complete "dozens or even hundreds of steps" in tasks.
Additionally, in September of last year, Anthropic launched Claude Enterprise, the largest product update since the introduction of its chatbot Claude, designed for enterprises looking to integrate AI technology into their businesses Earlier, Anthropic also launched a more powerful AI model, Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
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