The rapidly growing artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic is on track to achieve a $60 billion valuation, making its seven cofounders billionaires.
This valuation comes after a new funding round, expected to raise $2 billion, was confirmed by two sources with knowledge of the deal. The round, which is led by venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, will close shortly, though its terms have not yet been finalized.
Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI team members, including CEO Dario Amodei and president Daniela Amodei, Anthropic is best known for creating the popular AI chatbot, Claude. The company’s valuation surge reflects growing investor interest in AI technologies and its position as one of the largest competitors to OpenAI, which created the widely-used ChatGPT.
As part of the new valuation, each of Anthropic’s seven founders will hold more than 2% of the company’s equity, making their stakes worth at least $1.2 billion. The founders—Dario and Daniela Amodei, along with Tom Brown, Jack Clark, Jared Kaplan, Sam McCandlish, and Christopher Olah—are now set to join the ranks of AI billionaires, joining the likes of Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang.
Over the past few years, Anthropic has raised substantial funding, including a $1 billion round in 2024 and a $4 billion investment from Amazon. The company has used these funds to enhance its AI models, such as the recently launched Claude 3.5, which includes improved capabilities for computing tasks.
The company’s founders initially held larger equity stakes—around 6% each—when the company was first founded. However, the dilution of their stakes over subsequent funding rounds has reduced their individual holdings to between 2% and 3%, according to Forbes estimates. Despite the dilution, the founders’ net worths will now soar due to the company’s increased valuation.
Anthropic’s success mirrors a broader trend in the AI industry, as companies like OpenAI, xAI (founded by Musk), and other AI startups have attracted significant investments. With this surge in AI funding, the valuation and fortunes of companies like Anthropic are continuing to rise, fueling speculation that more AI billionaires could emerge in the near future.
With input from Forbes and the New York Times.
