Venture capital firms have made multiple offers to invest in artificial intelligence company Anthropic at valuations reaching $800 billion in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. This figure is more than double the company's current official valuation, signalling intense investor demand for a share of the buzzy AI startup as it eyes a potential initial public offering (IPO).
A spokesperson for Anthropic declined to comment on the reported offers.
Valuation Surge Reflects AI Frenzy
The reported offers, which value Anthropic at up to $800 billion, highlight the feverish competition among investors to back leading AI firms. This comes as the company prepares for a possible IPO later in the year. In February, Anthropic closed a funding round led by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC and investment firm Coatue that valued the company at $380 billion.
This valuation is less than half of the $852 billion achieved by its rival OpenAI in a funding round last month. On Caplight, a secondary exchange for shares of private companies, Anthropic is currently valued at $688 billion, representing a 75% increase over the last three months.
Torrid Growth and Product Momentum
Investor enthusiasm is driven by Anthropic's explosive financial growth and the strong market reception of its products, particularly the AI-powered coding assistant Claude Code. Last week, the company announced its annualised run-rate revenue had soared to $30 billion, a dramatic increase from the $9 billion reported at the end of 2023.
The company also revealed that over 1,000 business customers are now spending more than $1 million annually on its services, a figure that has doubled in less than two months. "They're crushing it," said Jared Quincy Davis, founder and CEO of the AI cloud platform Mithril, speaking about Anthropic at the HumanX AI conference.
Launch of Powerful New AI Model
Adding to the momentum, Anthropic recently unveiled its latest AI model, named Mythos. The company stated the model is so powerful that it cannot yet be released to the general public due to potential cybersecurity risks. "The Mythos model is a huge deal," said Tomasz Tunguz, founder and general partner of Theory Ventures, also at the HumanX conference. "There's a tremendous amount of excitement."
While buzzy startups frequently receive and reject preemptive investment offers, the scale of the valuations being discussed for Anthropic underscores its position at the forefront of the current AI investment boom. The company's next steps towards a public listing will be closely watched as a bellwether for the sector.