Anthropic's Valuation Could Be About to Balloon

Anthropic may be about to leap into the very top tier of tech valuations. Bloomberg reports the AI startup behind the Claude chatbot is in early talks to raise at least $30 billion in new funding at a valuation north of $900 billion, citing unnamed sources. No term sheet has been signed, and the deal could still change, but one source said the round might close by the end of the month. Anthropic declined to comment.

The New York Times gives context to the numbers: That valuation (which it reports could be as much as $950 billion) would be 2.5 times its current valuation of $380 billion—a valuation that was established just three months ago. Anthropic would also leapfrog rival OpenAI, which has a valuation of $852 billion as of March.

The money hunt comes as the company races to secure the computing power it needs and weighs an initial public offering as soon as October. The talks follow recent big-ticket deals in April: Google committed $10 billion at a $350 billion valuation, with up to $30 billion more depending on performance, while Amazon has pledged $5 billion with plans for up to an additional $20 billion.