Anthropic is nearing a deal to raise between $3 billion and $5 billion in funding, valuing the large language model developer at $170 billion, Bloomberg reported.
Iconiq Capital is leading this funding round, but there’s a possibility of a second lead investor joining the deal. The company has also been in talks with Qatar Investment Authority and GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, according to the report.
If finalized, the deal would nearly triple Anthropic’s valuation, which was $61.5 billion after a $3.5 billion funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners announced in March. Other participants in the startup’s last round included Bessemer Venture Partners, Cisco Investments, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, General Catalyst, Jane Street, Menlo Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures.
Despite Anthropic’s mission as a safety-conscious AI model developer, the company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, recently confessed in a memo to employees, reported by Wired, that he’s “not thrilled” about taking money from sovereign wealth funds of dictatorial governments.
To keep pace with the massive capital requirements of developing AI models, the company has been forced to turn to Middle Eastern capital.
“Unfortunately, I think ‘No bad person should ever benefit from our success’ is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on,” Amodei wrote in a leaked memo.
Anthropic didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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