AI startup Anthropic is nearing a $2 billion funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, valuing the company at $60 billion, according to sources. This follows a $4 billion investment from Amazon, bringing Anthropic’s total funding to $6 billion. The valuation marks a sharp rise from $18 billion during its 2023 funding round led by Menlo Ventures.
Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI executives Dario and Daniela Amodei, competes with OpenAI in the foundation model space. It generates annualized revenue of $875 million, selling access to its AI models directly and via cloud services like Amazon Web Services. Amazon and Alphabet are major investors, with Amazon committing $8 billion and Alphabet contributing $2 billion in previous rounds.
The funding highlights the intensifying competition in generative AI, spurred by OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. OpenAI recently raised $6.6 billion, pushing its valuation to $157 billion, further fueling the AI industry’s growth and rivalry.
