Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has announced a valuation of $380 billion, solidifying its position alongside rival OpenAI and Elon Musk’s SpaceX as one of the world’s most valuable startups. Investors are watching closely this year to see if these companies will go public on Wall Street.
“These are the three biggest names that could go public this year,” said Angelo Bochanis, an associate at Renaissance Capital, a research firm specializing in initial public offerings (IPOs).
Anthropic, the maker of the chatbot Claude, revealed on Thursday that its valuation surged following a $30 billion funding round. This round was led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and U.S.-based investment firm Coatue, alongside dozens of other major investors.
A significant portion of this funding comes from the $15 billion investment commitment made by Nvidia and Microsoft in November. This deal also includes an agreement for Anthropic to purchase approximately $30 billion in computing capacity from Microsoft, a crucial resource for building and running AI systems like Claude. Additionally, cloud giants Amazon and Google have provided substantial backing to Anthropic.
Krishna Rao, Anthropic’s Chief Financial Officer, stated that the influx of investments will be used to develop “enterprise-grade products” and advance its AI models.
According to Renaissance Capital, Anthropic ranks third among the most valuable private companies, trailing behind OpenAI, valued at $500 billion, and SpaceX. The latter recently merged with Musk’s AI startup xAI, creators of the chatbot Grok.
Despite not being profitable yet, Anthropic is on track to generate $14 billion in sales over the next year—a remarkable growth considering the company earned its first dollar in revenue less than three years ago.
While OpenAI explores various revenue models, including digital advertising, Anthropic has focused on positioning Claude as a workplace assistant, helping with tasks such as software engineering.
Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, Anthropic’s co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei has emphasized a commitment to the safe development of artificial general intelligence (AGI)—technology surpassing human capabilities—aligning with the goals of both San Francisco-based firms.
In addition, Anthropic announced the establishment of a new $20 million bipartisan organization aimed at influencing AI regulation in the United States.
OpenAI made headlines in late 2022 with the release of ChatGPT, showcasing the enormous commercial potential of AI large language models capable of writing emails, generating computer code, and answering questions. Anthropic followed suit with its first version of Claude in 2023.
Angelo Bochanis points out that whichever company conducts an IPO first will have “an opportunity to raise even more money” and benefit from “a big headline and that sort of boost to your public image.”
However, he also warns of the risks involved. Going public means companies must open their business models to public scrutiny while continuing to operate at a loss. “Private markets have been throwing dozens of billions of dollars at these companies, even as valuations multiply again and again and again,” he said. “With public markets, there’s going to be a little more scrutiny. A single earnings report could tank a stock.”
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/anthropic-hits-380b-valuation-heightens-competition-openai-130120107
