Anthropic eyes $350 billion valuation in massive round, Journal reports

Investing.com -- Anthropic is in talks to raise $10 billion at a $350 billion pre-money valuation, nearly doubling its market cap in just four months as the artificial intelligence arms race accelerates. The deal, first reported by The Wall Street Journal citing sources familiar with the matter, positions the Claude chatbot developer as one of the most valuable private companies in the world.

Singapore’s sovereign-wealth fund GIC and Coatue Management are slated to lead the financing, according to the Journal’s report citing people familiar with the deal. This infusion of capital represents a dramatic escalation from a September round that valued the firm at $183 billion. The round is expected to close in the coming weeks, though sources cautioned that the total amount and final terms remain fluid.

The capital comes alongside a separate strategic commitment of up to $15 billion from NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT). As part of that arrangement, Anthropic has agreed to purchase $30 billion of compute capacity from Microsoft Azure running on Nvidia’s specialized AI systems. This circular investment model highlights the deepening alliances between frontier model developers and the infrastructure giants providing the chips and cloud power necessary to train next-generation AI, but also remains a key point of scrutiny for investors that fear an "AI bubble" similar to the dot-com boom of 2000.

Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers Dario and Daniela Amodei, has distinguished itself by focusing on AI safety and enterprise-grade reliability. This focus appears to be yielding a faster path to sustainability. The company expects to break even for the first time in 2028, a milestone that The Wall Street Journal reports would put it on track to turn a profit more quickly than its primary rival, OpenAI.

The fundraising arrives as Anthropic prepares for a potential public debut as early as late 2026. Existing backers including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Fidelity, and Iconiq Capital are now watching a valuation that has rocketed from roughly $18 billion to $350 billion in less than two years. Meanwhile, OpenAI is reportedly seeking its own $100 billion infusion at a valuation nearing $750 billion, signaling that the industry’s hunger for capital shows no signs of abating.

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