OpenAI Rival Anthropic Is Reportedly in Talks to Raise $750 Million in Funding

OpenAI rival Anthropic is reportedly in advanced discussions to raise a $750 million funding round, with Menlo Ventures spearheading the investment.

A person with knowledge of the matter told CNBC that if the funding round materializes, it could propel Anthropic's valuation to a remarkable $18.4 billion, marking a significant surge from its valuation earlier in the year at $4.1 billion.

Anthropic Prospective Funding Endeavor

The Information previously reported this prospective funding endeavor, but Anthropic chose to refrain from commenting on this matter. It is worth noting that Anthropic has garnered support from major players in the tech industry, including Google, Salesforce, and Zoom.

The company has also raised $750 million in two funding rounds conducted in April and May. Google's involvement in one of these rounds resulted in the tech giant acquiring a 10% stake in Anthropic.

The May funding round was particularly noteworthy, standing as the largest funding round for an AI company since Microsoft's investment in OpenAI in January, according to PitchBook.

Google also announced a strategic investment commitment of up to $2 billion in Anthropic last October. This commitment comprised a $500 million initial cash infusion and an additional $1.5 billion to be progressively invested.

ChatGPT's Rival Claude 2 by Anthropic

Anthropic is known for developing Claude 2, a formidable competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT. Claude 2 has found utility in prominent platforms such as Salesforce's Slack, Notion, and Quora.

One distinctive feature of Claude 2 is its capacity to summarize extensive texts, handling up to approximately 75,000 words. In contrast, ChatGPT manages about 3,000 words.

Anthropic boasts a founding team comprised of former OpenAI executives, such as Dario Amodei, OpenAI's former vice president of research, and his sister Daniela Amodei, who served as OpenAI's vice president of safety and policy.

Claude 2's prowess was evident in a test conducted by Arthur AI, a machine learning monitoring platform, where it emerged as the most reliable chatbot in terms of "self-awareness."

This aspect refers to the bot's ability to accurately discern its knowledge boundaries, answering queries solely when it possesses supporting training data.

Daniela informed CNBC that Anthropic dedicated an extensive two-month effort to develop Claude 2. The company assembled a specialized team of 30 to 35 professionals solely for the AI model, supplemented by a total workforce of 150 individuals offering support.

She emphasized the industry's surging demand for large language models, indicating abundant opportunities for diverse participants to excel in this expansive field.

The disclosed funding round highlights Anthropic's rise in the competitive AI arena, establishing it as a formidable player with significant financial support to advance its innovative pursuits.