Gulf-backed Anthropic overtakes OpenAI in race to $1trn valuation

• $65bn raised in latest funding round
• QIA and MGX among backers
• IPO could take place this year

US artificial intelligence company Anthropic has raised $65 billion in a funding round that trebles the startup’s valuation to almost $1 trillion, leapfrogging rival OpenAI as the world’s most valuable AI developer.

The deal highlights the breakneck pace of investment flowing into AI, with investors betting that demand for the technology’s advanced tools will continue to surge across industries.

Gulf sovereign wealth funds have been among Anthropic’s backers. The Qatar Investment Authority participated in a $13 billion funding round last year, while Abu Dhabi-backed MGX took part in discussions this February about joining a round that could exceed $20 billion.

The round comes just three months after Anthropic raised $30 billion at a valuation of $350 billion. The latest fundraising values the company at $965 billion, ahead of OpenAI’s most recent valuation of $852 billion.

Anthropic’s annualised revenue run rate reached $47 billion this month, more than five times higher than at the start of the year. This metric is favoured by startups and estimates annual revenue based on recent performance.

The fundraising was led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks and Sequoia Capital, and also included investments from memory-chip manufacturers Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix.

Investors are seeking to increase their exposure ahead of a potential initial public offering that could come as soon as this year.

SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite maker, which is also backed by Gulf investors, is targeting a valuation of about $1.75 trillion in a planned flotation this summer. Sam Altman’s OpenAI is also preparing to file for a listing in what may prove to be a blockbuster year for AI-related flotations.

The raise caps a remarkable period for Anthropic and its CEO Dario Amodei. The company’s Claude AI model has emerged as one of the strongest challengers to OpenAI’s dominance.

Its most advanced system, Mythos, has drawn scrutiny from governments and regulators because of its cybersecurity capabilities. Anthropic has so far restricted access to a small group of trusted partners.

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On Thursday, the company said it was making progress towards a broader release of Mythos. It also unveiled Opus 4.8, the latest version of its flagship Claude model, which it said was more transparent about uncertainty and less likely to make unsupported claims.

The total also includes previously committed strategic investments, including Amazon’s $5 billion backing of the company.

The fresh capital will be used to expand computing capacity as demand for Anthropic’s products continues to accelerate.

Securing access to computing power is becoming one of the defining battlegrounds in the global AI race as companies compete to train increasingly powerful models and avoid the capacity constraints that have affected leading platforms.

“This funding will help us serve the historic demand we are experiencing, stay at the research frontier, and bring Claude to more of the places where work happens,” said Krishna Rao, Anthropic’s chief financial officer.

Founded by former OpenAI employees, Anthropic is best known for its Claude chatbot and AI-powered coding tools, which are used by more than 100,000 customers through Amazon Web Services.