Report says Anthropic may raise $50B at up to a $900B valuation

In short: Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI assistant, may raise around $50 billion more funding at a valuation of up to $900 billion, according to TechCrunch sources.

What happened

TechCrunch reports that Anthropic has received multiple pre-emptive offers from investors. A pre-emptive offer is when investors try to get in early, before a formal fundraising process starts.

According to TechCrunch, the potential deal would value Anthropic in the $850 billion to $900 billion range. The total fundraising round is expected to be $40 billion to $50 billion. Anthropic is expected to decide at a board meeting in May, one source told TechCrunch, and the company declined to comment.

The report says investor demand is strong. One institutional investor was prepared to commit as much as $5 billion but had not yet secured a meeting with Anthropic’s CFO, Krishna Rao, according to a source.

Anthropic also announced this month that its annual revenue run rate has surpassed $30 billion. Run rate is a simple projection, like taking one month or quarter of sales and estimating what a full year would look like if things stay similar. One person familiar with the company’s finances told TechCrunch the run rate is currently closer to $40 billion.

TechCrunch notes that Anthropic last raised money in February at a $380 billion valuation. The company’s growth has been helped by AI coding products like Claude Code, which can help write and edit software code.

Why it matters

If this round happens, it would be one of the largest private fundraising deals ever. It also shows how much money is flowing into a small number of AI companies that many businesses now rely on for tools like coding help.

Source: TechCrunch AI