Anthropic Closes $30 Billion Round at $900 Billion Valuation

Anthropic has agreed to terms for a roughly $30 billion funding round that values the AI startup at approximately $900 billion, making it the world's most valuable AI company and surpassing rival OpenAI's March valuation of $852 billion. The round, expected to close by the end of May 2026, is co-led by Sequoia Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Altimeter Capital, and Greenoaks Capital Partners, with each firm contributing at least $2 billion. Other participants include Founders Fund and General Catalyst. The valuation nearly triples Anthropic's $350 billion mark from just three months prior.

The financing surge is driven by explosive revenue growth. Annualized revenue has climbed from $100 million in 2023 to a projected $43.6 billion to $45 billion in 2026, with Q2 2026 revenue alone forecast at $10.9 billion — more than double the $4.8 billion recorded in Q1. CEO Dario Amodei reported that Q1 growth hit 80 times the prior year's pace, straining computing capacity. Anthropic also expects its first-ever operating profit of approximately $559 million in Q2, though it does not anticipate remaining profitable for the full year due to massive infrastructure costs.

To support scaling, Anthropic has secured long-term computing agreements with SpaceX's Colossus data center in Memphis at $1.25 billion per month through May 2029, along with partnerships involving Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Akamai, and Broadcom. These commitments are expected to incur hundreds of billions in future costs. Zoom Video Communications, which invested roughly $97 million in Anthropic starting in 2023, has already seen that stake valued between $1.27 billion and $1.3 billion. Anthropic is also weighing an initial public offering as early as October 2026, while OpenAI prepares for its own potential IPO as soon as September.