Anthropic raises $30bn in latest round, valuing Claude bot maker at $380bn
Anthropic, the US AI startup behind the Claude chatbot, has raised $30bn (£22bn) in a funding round that more than doubled its valuation to $380bn.The company’s previous funding round in September achieved a value of $183bn, with further improvements in the technology since then spurring even greater investor interest.The fundraising was announced amid a series of stock market moves against industries that face disruption from the latest models, including software, trucking and logistics, wealth management and commercial property services.The funding round, led by the Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and the hedge fund Coatue Management, is among the largest private fundraising deals on record.“Anthropic is the clear category leader in enterprise AI,” said Choo Yong Cheen, the chief investment officer of private equity at GIC.
Anthropic said its annualised revenue – an estimate of full-year sales based on recent company data – had reached $14bn, having grown more than tenfold in each of the past three years.A significant driver of recent growth has been Claude Code, the company’s AI-powered coding tool that became generally available in May 2025.Anthropic’s rival OpenAI, backed by Microsoft and SoftBank, has been assembling what is reportedly a far larger round of up to $100bn that would value the ChatGPT developer at about $830bn.The staggering sums being raised reflect equally staggering burn rates, with the companies spending cash to cover their huge costs of computing and attracting researcher talent.Anthropic has forecast reducing its cash burn to roughly a third of revenue in 2026 and just 9% by 2027, with a break-even target of 2028 – two years ahead of its rival, according to reports.
Both companies are widely expected to pursue initial public offerings in the second half of 2026,The rapid valuation increases for leading AI startups such as Anthropic and OpenAI, whose price tags far exceed those of many of the US’s largest listed companies, has alarmed some observers,Last year, a leading British tech investor, James Anderson, said he found sharp increases in valuations of companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic “disconcerting”,Some listed firms at the forefront of the AI industry have also come under stock market pressure in recent days,Shares in Alphabet, Google’s parent company, have fallen by 4.
2% so far this week, indicating some investors are still spooked by the big AI-related spending plans it laid out this month.Meta has declined by 1.7% during this week.Shares in Nvidia, a leading chipmaker and key provider of AI infrastructure, dropped by 1.6% on Thursday amid a wider sell-off but have been flat on the week.
“A gloomy session on Wall Street on Thursday put investors in a grumpy mood at the end of the trading week,” said Russ Mould, the investment director at investment platform AJ Bell.“Association with AI has gone from party to peril as investors reappraise what the technology means for companies.“Some are concerned about excessive levels of spending and others fear AI will disrupt multiple industries.It all adds up to a cocktail of worries and that’s bad for market sentiment more broadly,” Mould added.Founded in 2021 by the siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, both former executives at OpenAI, Anthropic has positioned itself as a safety-focused alternative in the AI race.
The funding round also comes shortly after Anthropic’s first television commercials were broadcast during Super Bowl LX, using the campaign to emphasise that its products remain ad-free,The ads took an apparent jab at OpenAI, which has begun to introduce advertising into the free version of ChatGPT,Anthropic’s earlier backers include Amazon, which has invested $8bn and serves as a primary computing partner through its datacentres, as well as Google, which invested $2bn in 2023,Agence France-Presse contributed to this article
Zimbabwe stun Australia with 23-run victory at T20 World Cup – as it happened
That’s all from me – thanks for following along as Zimbabwe showed that history does repeat with a stunning T20 World Cup victory over Australia. Here is the full report …Sikandar Raza can barely contain his excitement, not that he’s really trying as he rightly talks up Zimbabwe’s all round performance even before looking ahead. But there is still the slight matter of cramps that forced the Zimbabwe captain from the field several times during Australia’s chase.These are just cramps and I should be fine in the next day or two with a bit of rest.I’m very happy and very proud
‘A great wee place’: the small Scottish factory crafting Olympic curling stones
“It takes 60m years and about six hours to make a curling stone,” shouts Ricky English above the whine of the lathes. The operations manager at Kays Scotland is surrounded by wheels of ancient granite in varying states of refinement.It is a small business with a big responsibility: the only factory in the world to supply the Winter Olympics with curling stones. Competitors don’t travel with their own stones, which weigh about 18kg each, and with 16 required for a game. Instead, this year, 132 stones were crafted in the East Ayrshire town of Mauchline and shipped to northern Italy
Chess: Magnus Carlsen triumphs in London speed event but Nakamura fails
Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, visited central London last weekend and won the chess.com speed championship for the fourth time in a row. The Norwegian, 35, defeated France’s Alireza Firouzja, 22, by 15-12 after a three-hour struggle. Last year in Paris the same two players met, but Carlsen’s winning margin was a much wider 23.5-7
Winter Olympics briefing: Heraskevych’s helmet dispute raises tough questions
The Winter Olympics have been presented as a stage for unity – a place where nations set aside conflict, athletes chase excellence, and the world gathers in a shared celebration of human potential. Yet Thursday was shadowed by controversy for the International Olympic Committee that raise difficult questions about neutrality and the limits of political expression in sport.The Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was barred from competing after he insisted on wearing what he called a “helmet of memory”, created to honour Ukrainian athletes killed during Russia’s war against his country. He was informed only 21 minutes before racing by the IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, who spoke to the media in tears after she could not persuade him to change his mind.For Heraskevych, the helmet was not a political statement but an act of remembrance
Ice in his veins: Australian skier Cooper Woods embraces pressure to realise Winter Olympic dream
From the turquoise waters of a sleepy NSW beach town to the summit of his sport atop an alpine mountain in Italy, it has been by Cooper Woods’s own admission “an absolute journey”.Australia celebrated its latest Olympic champion on Friday after the freestyle skier stunned the rest of the field in the final, including moguls greats Mikael Kingsbury and Ikuma Horishima, to become his country’s seventh Winter Olympics gold winner – and first medallist of these Milano Cortina games.Few observers would have seen it coming. Woods has only reached the World Cup podium once – a silver medal at Waterville Valley in 2024 – since he joined the tour in 2017 and had endured a difficult 2025-26 season leading into the Games.He arrived in northern Italy ranked 20th in the world and told reporters he “didn’t have any expectations”
York shock champions Hull KR to seal first Super League win on opening night
The most incredible result in Super League’s 30-year history? There are certainly plenty of contenders but as North Yorkshire erupted in joy on the night rugby league’s big show rolled into town for the first time, it was hard to think of anything that measured up to this.Super League’s decision to expand to 14 teams over the winter has drawn criticism, not least over concerns that the two extra sides may not have brought the sufficient quality to compete at the highest level. Yet York managed not only to get off the mark but to stun the defending, all-conquering treble winners of 2025.Hull KR lost only five games in all competitions last season. Here, they have fallen at the first hurdle, having asked Super League for a softer opening game in anticipation of next week’s World Club Challenge against NRL champions Brisbane Broncos
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