Iconiq set to lead $5bn funding round for AI start-up Anthropic
Deal would almost triple valuation of OpenAI’s rival to $170bn
Iconiq Capital is set to lead a $5bn funding round for artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic that would value the company at $170bn, almost triple the valuation it achieved four months ago.
The investment group has submitted its proposed terms to Anthropic, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter, in a deal that would make the four-year-old start-up one of the most valuable private technology companies in the world.
Iconiq Capital is a San Francisco-based investment group that manages the wealth of high profile tech billionaires including Facebook co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
The group began as a wealth adviser to the super wealthy in 2011 and now manages more than $80bn.
Anthropic has been in discussions with multiple investors, including the United Arab Emirates state investment fund MGX and existing partner Amazon, about fresh investment in recent weeks, the Financial Times has reported.
The start-up closed a $3.5bn funding round that priced it at $61.5bn in March. Anthropic’s annual recurring revenue has quadrupled to around $4bn over the course of this year and the group is capitalising on intense investor interest in fast-growing AI start-ups.
The deal comes amid a fierce battle for funding with AI groups looking beyond Silicon Valley to sovereign wealth funds.
A valuation of $170bn would propel Anthropic to one of the most valuable private tech companies in the world, behind rival OpenAI, which is valued at $300bn, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX at $400bn.
AI start-ups and Big Tech groups are engaged in aggressive competition to develop cutting edge tools and sell them to individuals and businesses, a move that requires huge investment to power and train the next generation of large language models.
Anthropic was founded in 2021 by senior staff at OpenAI, who left the start-up after clashing with co-founder Sam Altman over the company’s direction. One of the breakaway group’s earliest backers was Moskovitz, an Iconiq client. Zuckerberg, also a major Iconiq client, is repositioning Meta to better compete with AI rivals such as Anthropic and OpenAI.
Anthropic has touted its commitment to developing AI tools safely, responsibly and ethically and has previously resisted raising money directly from the Middle East.
But last week Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei wrote to staff to tell them the company was changing its approach and would begin taking investment from the Middle East.
While Amodei warned the move could “enrich dictators”, he added: “Unfortunately, I think ‘no bad person should ever benefit from our success’ is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on.”
Iconiq and Anthropic declined to comment.