April 29 (Reuters) – Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is weighing raising funds in a new round that would value the Claude maker at more than $900 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
• The company is entertaining offers at more than double its current valuation, though the considerations are at an early stage and no offers have been accepted yet, the report said.
• Anthropic, which raised $30 billion at a valuation of $380 billion in February, declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
• The company has received multiple preemptive offers to raise fresh capital of around $50 billion at a valuation in the range of $850 billion to $900 billion, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
• Anthropic is expected to make a decision on the round and its valuation at a board meeting in May, TechCrunch said.
• If Anthropic closes a round at the reported valuation, it could dethrone OpenAI, valued at $852 billion in March, as the world’s most valuable AI startup.
• The fundraising push comes ahead of a potential IPO, which may be launched as soon as October, the Bloomberg report said.
• Anthropic was resisting investment proposals at valuations of $800 billion or more, earlier reports had said, as major backers Alphabet’s Google and Amazon continued to announce multi-billion-dollar performance-based investments.
(Reporting by Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Fabiola Arámburo; Editing by Jonathan Ananda and Subhranshu Sahu)
