Anthropic Nears $20 Billion Raise as Competition with OpenAI Heats Up

Anthropic is close to finalizing a major funding round that could raise more than $20 billion at a valuation of about $350 billion, according to reports. The company was first aiming for $10 billion, but strong demand from investors has pushed the round much higher. If completed, the deal would nearly double Anthropic's prior valuation and would come just months after it raised $13 billion, showing how fast investor interest in AI leaders is still growing.Valentine's Day Sale - 70% OffUnlock hedge fund-level data and powerful investing tools for smarter, sharper decisions Stay ahead of the market with the latest news and analysis and maximize your portfolio's potential Several large backers are expected to take part. Anthropic has lined up checks above $1 billion from Coatue Management, Singapore's GIC, and Iconiq Capital. Strategic support is also playing a key role, with Bloomberg reporting that Nvidia (NVDA) and Microsoft (MSFT) could invest as much as $15 billion. Altimeter Capital Management and Sequoia Capital are also expected to join, along with Lightspeed Venture Partners and Menlo Ventures. Investor excitement has been fueled by Anthropic's rapid business growth. The company's revenue run rate crossed $9 billion last summer, and its coding tools have become popular with both developers and large firms. Anthropic recently released a new model aimed at automating work tasks, which helped spark a broad selloff in parts of the software sector as markets reacted to the speed of AI change. A Funding Boom and Rising Costs At the same time, the funding surge highlights the rising cost of building advanced AI. Companies must spend heavily on chips, data centers, and talent. Industry watchers are also monitoring how much of the funding cycle is tied to suppliers such as Nvidia, which both sells key hardware and is now investing directly into major AI firms. Anthropic's round is also unfolding as OpenAI is reportedly in talks to raise up to $100 billion, adding to the sense that the AI funding race is still accelerating. Both firms have also taken steps toward possible IPO paths this year. Super Bowl Ads Show the Rivalry Alongside the funding battle, Anthropic has also been pushing its brand in public. The company ran a Super Bowl ad warning that ads may soon appear inside AI chats, but not in Claude. The screen read, "Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude." Anthropic said it wants to stay aligned with users rather than advertisers, and co-founder Daniela Amodei called ads inside chats "exploitative," since people often share personal details. OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman responded soon after on X. While he praised the humor, he rejected the message behind it. "Our most important principle for ads says that we won't do exactly this," Altman wrote, adding that OpenAI would "obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic depicts them." Together, the massive funding numbers and even the Super Bowl spotlight show how intense the competition has become. As AI tools move deeper into daily work and business, investors are betting that the companies shaping trust, scale, and business models today will define the next phase of the market. We used TipRanks' Comparison Tool to compare notable publicly traded companies that employ chatbots similar to ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude. It's an excellent tool to gain a broader perspective on each stock and the AI industry as a whole.