Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is weighing raising funds in a new round that would value the Claude maker at more than $900 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The company is entertaining offers at more than double its current valuation, though the considerations are at an early stage and no offers have been accepted yet, the report said.
Anthropic, which raised $30 billion at a valuation of $380 billion in February, declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. The company has received multiple preemptive offers to raise fresh capital of around $50 billion at a valuation in the range of $850 billion to $900 billion, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Anthropic is expected to make a decision on the round and its valuation at a board meeting in May, TechCrunch said. If Anthropic closes a round at the reported valuation, it could dethrone OpenAI, valued at $852 billion in March, as the world's most valuable AI startup.
The fundraising push comes ahead of a potential IPO, which may be launched as soon as October, the Bloomberg report said.
Anthropic was resisting investment proposals at valuations of $800 billion or more, earlier reports had said, as major backers Alphabet's Google and Amazon continued to announce multi-billion-dollar performance-based investments.
