Author of this article: Li Dan

Source: Hard AI

The two artificial intelligence (AI) unicorns that have been popular in recent years are trying to “suck in money” and are vying to attract investors. According to recent news, OpenAI's rival, Anthropic, an American startup that develops the Big Language Model (LLM) Claude, is seeking new financing, and the company's valuation may be as high as 40 billion dollars.

According to a report by the tech media The Information on Monday, September 23, EST, an existing investor in the department who spoke with Anthropic's leadership revealed that Anthropic has begun discussions with investors to raise capital. This deal may bring the company's valuation to 30 billion to 40 billion US dollars, which is about double the valuation of completing a round of financing at the beginning of this year.

The report said that Anthropic's financing negotiations mentioned above are still in the early stages, and it is unclear whether investors will agree to such a high valuation. According to materials obtained by The Information, Anthropic plans to present to investors at a private tech conference to be held by Morgan Stanley in Los Angeles next month.

Notably, the report mentioned that Anthropic may eventually hire an investment bank to help facilitate a new round of financing. However, startups usually don't hire investment banks to solicit investment unless the financing process is complicated, such as involving sovereign wealth funds or corporate investors. According to the aforementioned investors, Anthropic has been raising capital from corporate investors and is likely to do so again.

At the end of March this year, Amazon also announced that it would invest an additional 2.75 billion US dollars in Anthropic, making it the largest venture capital in Amazon's history. In September of last year, Amazon announced an initial investment of 1.25 billion US dollars in Anthropic. At that time, Amazon promised that the total investment would reach up to 4 billion US dollars. The investment announced in March was Amazon's second round of capital injection into Anthropic, bringing Amazon's total investment in Anthropic close to the commitment limit of 4 billion dollars.

Anthropic declined to comment on Monday's report. According to the review, news about the financing suggests that Anthropic is also trying to attract investors' interest when OpenAI is carrying out the latest round of funding. However, some investment firms doubt that even AI startups with highly respected technology will find it difficult to generate sufficient revenue to cover their financial losses in developing and operating AI.

Prior to news of Anthropic's new financing, several media recently revealed that tech giants are vying for new OpenAI financing and that OpenAI's valuation will exceed 100 billion US dollars as a result.

At the end of last month, there were reports that OpenAI is seeking a new round of multi-billion dollar financing. Among them, Thrive Capital, the lead investor, will invest about 1 billion dollars. Microsoft will participate. The new financing will make OpenAI's valuation more than 100 billion dollars. There are also reports that Apple is in negotiations to join OpenAI in a new round of financing, and Nvidia has already discussed joining OpenAI's round of financing. If discussions progress, the three companies with the highest market capitalization in the world will all invest in OpenAI, highlighting the market's high expectations for its technological potential.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (Sam Altman) once called it “the most capital-intensive startup in Silicon Valley history,” and this new financing once again shows Ultraman's strong financing capabilities. If OpenAI's valuation exceeds 100 billion US dollars, among private startups, OpenAI's valuation will only rank behind a few companies such as ByteDance and SpaceX.

Wall Street News at the end of last month mentioned that some investors think the 100 billion valuation is still conservative, and even expect OpenAI's valuation to reach 125 billion dollars. More than a week ago, some media also said that Microsoft, Apple, and Nvidia will participate in OpenAI's new $6.5 billion financing. Before receiving the new financing, OpenAI's latest valuation will reach 150 billion US dollars, and OpenAI is also discussing borrowing 5 billion US dollars from banks.

If the news is true, OpenAI reached a valuation of 150 billion dollars this month, which means that its valuation has increased by nearly 88% in less than 7 months and more than half a year. Because of the New York Times report in February of this year, OpenAI's valuation tripled to 80 billion dollars in less than 10 months after completing the deal, including venture capital firms and employee savings.

After news of Anthropic's financing broke this Monday, Jacques Thibodeau, a researcher dedicated to the risks posed by super-intelligent general artificial intelligence (AGI), commented on social media X that since some people have been denied participation in this round of OpenAI's financing, other AGI companies don't seem to have any trouble with financing. The review also retweeted a screenshot of the Goldman Sachs AI report titled “AI Stocks Are Not Bubbles.”