Anthropic's next mega-round is locked in: $30 billion in new funding at a $90 billion pre-money valuation, with the deal expected to close this month.
The lead investor lineup is the real story here. Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia Capital, and Altimeter Capital are co-leading the round, each putting in at least $2 billion. Three of those firms are also heavyweight shareholders in OpenAI: Dragoneer poured nearly $3 billion into OpenAI last year, Sequoia has been betting on ChatGPT since 2021, and Altimeter CEO Brad Gerstner has publicly backed Sam Altman on podcasts and in interviews. Now they're writing enormous checks to a rival that could soon surpass OpenAI in valuation. That's a clear vote of confidence that AI is a duopoly, not a winner-take-all market.
The deal came together fast. Anthropic's first CFO, Krishna Rao, who joined in May 2024 and previously negotiated a $1 billion lifeline for Airbnb during the pandemic, ran the process. Investors approached the company last month; within two weeks, Rao kicked off negotiations and locked in terms. Google and Amazon are expected to sit this one out, though Anthropic is still talking to other investors for the remaining allocation. Final terms could still shift before the official announcement.