Anthropic is in talks to raise at least $30 billion at a valuation of over $900 billion. The funding round, which could close by the end of May, would be the largest in the history of the Claude creator. No final agreement has been reached yet, but it appears that the company’s IPO will be delayed for the time being.
The talks have been confirmed by Bloomberg sources who wished to remain anonymous. Anthropic is said to have already received multiple proposals from investors without having explicitly launched a funding round. We reported late last month that the company was eyeing a valuation of over $900 billion—so that’s not new—but that no decision had been made at that time. Now, discussions are actually underway with existing shareholders regarding participation in the new round.
The need for capital is not hard to explain. Anthropic announced in April that its run-rate revenue had surpassed $30 billion, a doubling (!) from the $14 billion in February. That growth requires significant investments in computing power. Anthropic had previously signed a multi-year contract with CoreWeave for additional data center capacity and committed to $50 billion in new AI data centers in the U.S. In addition, the capacity of investors Amazon and Google is needed.
From $380 billion to nearly a trillion
The speed at which Anthropic’s valuation is rising is remarkable. In February, the company raised $30 billion in a Series G round, with investors including GIC, MGX, BlackRock, Blackstone, and Morgan Stanley, at a valuation of $380 billion. Google also committed to a $10 billion investment, with the option to increase that amount to $40 billion upon achieving performance targets. Amazon invested $5 billion, also with plans to expand its investment to $20 billion.
It remains unclear whether Google or Amazon will participate in the new round.
Race with OpenAI
The timing coincides with rumors of an IPO. Bloomberg previously reported that Anthropic is considering an IPO, possibly as early as October. OpenAI was valued at $852 billion in March in a funding round led by Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank. Should the new Anthropic round succeed at the targeted valuation, the Claude creator would surpass OpenAI.