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
History hangs heavy over Calcutta Cup but England’s young side can turn tartan tide
In one of sport’s weirder coincidences, England are about to play must-win games against Scotland in both rugby and cricket on the same day. The forecast 3C temperatures for the Calcutta Cup encounter may be cooler than in Kolkata – appropriately the venue for the T20 World Cup group fixture – but a white-hot contest inside a chilly Murrayfield can be absolutely guaranteed.Because this particular collision, the 144th since the sides first met at Raeburn Place in 1871, looks set to shape the Six Nations prospects of all involved. To say Scotland are under additional pressure following their defeat by Italy in round one is to state the obvious. And England, too, will take the field knowing the time has come to demonstrate whether or not they are the real deal
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Patriots’ Stefon Diggs pleads not guilty to assault, strangulation charges
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Winter Olympics thrills, FA Cup magic and the Six Nations – follow with us
Emillia Hawkins kickstarts the weekend’s football programme with our unmissable rolling blog that rises early to provide all the breaking news from around the grounds as the FA Cup hoves into view. Expect followup from Friday’s two ties – Hull v Chelsea and Wrexham v Ipswich – plus news and buildup to Saturday’s eight fourth-round matches, bookended with West Ham’s lunchtime trip to Burton and Liverpool hosting Brighton at 8pm. There are five Championship matches and a full programme in Leagues One and Two. In Europe, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are in action, while in Serie A Inter meet Juventus in the evening’s derby d’Italia. Why not join the conversation by sending your thoughts to matchday
Skating body defends Olympic judging after French duo’s ice dance gold
The International Skating Union (ISU) has defended the integrity of Olympic ice dance judging after a single judge’s scoring gap became central to the outcome of the gold medal contest, insisting variations across panels are expected and that safeguards exist to prevent bias from determining results.In a statement released on Friday, the governing body rejected suggestions that the judging system failed during the competition, in which France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron narrowly defeated Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates in one of the closest and most disputed finishes of the Milano Cortina Games.“It is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judges in any panel and a number of mechanisms are used to mitigate these variations,” an ISU spokesperson said. “The ISU has full confidence in the scores given and remains completely committed to fairness.”Under the ISU judging system, the highest and lowest scores for each element and programme component are automatically discarded before the remaining marks are averaged – a process known as a trimmed mean – which is designed to reduce the influence of outlier judging
Ukrainian athlete’s appeal for Winter Olympics reinstatement dismissed by Cas
The Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych has lost his appeal to compete at the Winter Olympics after the court of arbitration for sport ruled that the International Olympic Committee guidelines banning his “helmet of memory” were fair and proportionate.Heraskevych had gone to Cas after being dramatically removed from the men’s competition on Thursday only 45 minutes before it was due to start because of his helmet, which depicts 24 athletes and children killed by Russia.Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'.If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you’re on the most recent version.In the Guardian app, tap the Profile settings button at the top right, then select Notifications
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