OpenAI rival Anthropic has officially closed a deal to raise $3.5 billion at a valuation of $61.5 billion, the company told Bloomberg — cementing its place as one of the largest startups in the world.The higher valuation, which includes the new capital raised, comes as Anthropic’s business is growing quickly. Late last year, the company’s annual revenue run rate was about $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. So far this year, that number has increased by 30%, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.Anthropic declined to comment on its sales. CNBC earlier reported its 2024 revenue projections.

The latest deal for the maker of large language models, best known for its chatbot named Claude, was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, which contributed $1 billion, said Anthropic. Other investors who participated in the Series E deal include General Catalyst, Jane Street and Fidelity Management & Research Company, according to an Anthropic statement. Existing investors including Menlo Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners also backed the company in the latest round, the company said.

Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former employees of OpenAI, has positioned itself as a reliable, safety-conscious firm that users can trust. The company was originally planning to raise $2 billion in the latest financing, but ended up raising more than anticipated in an oversubscribed round.

The new funding will fuel Anthropic’s competition with OpenAI, which is currently in talks for an even larger $300 billion valuation. Both deals underscore Silicon Valley investors’ continued enthusiasm for funneling big sums to leading AI firms, despite the recent entrance of smaller companies like China’s DeepSeek, which claim to develop similar technology more cheaply.

Source: FINANCE.YAHOO