Anthropic has overtaken OpenAI to become the most expensive AI startup in the world

Anthropic has become the world's most expensive artificial intelligence (AI) startup, surpassing its competitor OpenAI in business valuation. This was reported on May 29 by The New York Times (NYT).

The developer announced the raising of $65 billion in a new investment round. As a result, the valuation of Anthropic, including investments, amounted to $965 billion. For comparison, OpenAI's latest estimate reached $730 billion. The investment round was led by funds Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia Capital, Altimeter Capital and Dragoneer Investment Group. The company's value has increased almost 2.5 times compared to the figure of $380 billion recorded about three months ago.

Simultaneously with the financial transaction, the company introduced a new flagship AI model, Claude Opus 4.8. As stated in Anthropic, it significantly surpasses the previous version in generating program code. According to the NYT, the startup's rapid growth is linked to the expansion of its business in the segment of AI software development tools. After the programming technology update in November, hundreds of organizations began using the company's products on a paid basis. According to reports from Anthropic, the annual revenue figure in May exceeded $47 billion.

"This funding will help us meet the historical demand we are currently seeing, stay at the forefront of research, and expand Claude's presence in our work processes," said Krishna Rao, the company's chief financial officer.

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The Wall Street Journal reported on May 6 that DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, will hold an investment round that could raise up to $50 billion. It was noted that DeepSeek may also invest in the National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, a state investment fund that was established a year ago. The fund's capital is estimated at around $8.8 billion.