Anthropic, the artificial intelligence startup that owns Claude, raised its target for fundraising from around $5 billion to $10 billion, per reports circulated among investors. The round should now be worth the company around $170 billion. Iconiq Capital is spearheading negotiations. Household name venture capitalists such as Lightspeed, TGP, Menlo Ventures, and Spark Capital are also in the mix, with negotiations being held with Singapore’s GIC and the Qatar Investment Authority. (Bloomberg via ET was first to report the $170B valuation with Iconiq leading; other sources called the round heavily oversubscribed.)
The larger target captures what’s going on in AI as a whole: firms are competing to bank money for chips, data centers, and model training. OpenAI, for instance, is negotiating to issue $6B worth of stock at a $500B valuation, establishing a new benchmark for the industry.
The Gulf Money Turn
There’s also a change in where the money is coming from. A leaked Slack memo from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei revealed the firm is now willing to accept capital from Gulf sovereign funds, the UAE and Qatar, after avoiding some Middle East sources previously due to national security concerns. Amodei recognized that the ethics are messy, but believed the amounts at stake are so big that they couldn’t be left out if the firm wishes to remain on the frontier.
Why Investors Are Flocking In
Anthropic’s top line has been growing quickly this year. Late last month, Reuters said the company reached a $3B annualized clip, with code generation driving much of the growth. By early July, The Information reported Anthropic reached about $4B annualized (nearly $333M a month). That kind of growth goes a long way towards explaining why the new round might price closer to $170B, an increase from around $61.5B in March.
Taking a step back, AI startups captured roughly 53% of venture capital in the first half of 2025, illustrating how money has coalesced around a handful of mega-winners. Bottom line: it’s a winner-takes-most environment, and the largest players are absorbing all the funding.
FAQs
- Is the $10B target confirmed?
Anthropic has not publicly disclosed it. Investor reports indicate that the target has more than doubled to $10B from approximately $5B; Bloomberg/ET has confirmed Iconiq at the helm of the $170B valuation talks.
- Who’s investing in Anthropic?
Iconiq Capital is leading. Lightspeed, TPG, Menlo Ventures, and Spark Capital are likely to participate. Talks are also ongoing with GIC and QIA.
- Why is Anthropic accepting Gulf sovereign wealth funds now?
A memo circulated by CEO Dario Amodei states that having access to extremely large pools of capital is essential to stay up on model training and infrastructure. He mentioned the moral trade-offs but stated the company must have the funds to compete.
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