Anthropic plans to raise at least $25 billion, and HSG plans to invest in the strong competitor of OpenAI.
According to Cailian Press, on January 18th local time, artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is advancing a new round of financing. It plans to raise at least $25 billion at a valuation of $350 billion. Sequoia Capital plans to participate in this round of financing, and existing investors such as Microsoft and NVIDIA will also continue to increase their investments. The transaction is expected to be completed within the next few weeks.
Anthropic was founded in 2021 by Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei, former research vice - presidents of OpenAI. Its headquarters is located in San Francisco, California, USA. Most of its core team members come from the R & D camps of GPT - 2 and GPT - 3. In the early stage, it established the R & D direction of "reliable, interpretable, and controllable" AI.
To date, its flagship Claude series of models have continued to iterate. The Claude Opus 4 launched in 2025 achieved a breakthrough in hourly attention span and has the ability to develop complex software throughout the entire cycle, upgrading AI from a response tool to a project collaborator.
As of now, the company's annualized revenue has soared from $1 billion a year ago to $10 billion, making it one of the few enterprise - level AI solution providers that can compete head - on with OpenAI's ChatGPT.
The competition with OpenAI has run through Anthropic's development process. The two sides have formed a differentiated competition in terms of technological routes - Anthropic focuses on model security and long - text processing capabilities, while OpenAI focuses on multi - modal integration and ecological expansion. Previously, there were reports that the two sides had explored the possibility of a merger, but it ultimately failed due to strategic differences.
It is worth noting that Sequoia has previously participated in OpenAI's financing round last year and xAI under Elon Musk. As a rule, venture capital firms usually avoid supporting competing startups in the same field. Now, it may create a rare situation of "investing in three direct competitors in one track".
If this round of financing is completed, Anthropic's valuation of $350 billion is still lower than OpenAI's $500 billion. However, the valuation increase of over 90% in four months has further narrowed the gap with OpenAI.
Looking back at Anthropic's financing history, the company completed multiple rounds of financing in 2023. Google initially invested $300 million for a 10% stake, and it received $450 million in Series C financing.
In September 2025, it announced the completion of a $13 billion Series F financing led by ICONIQ, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. After this round of financing, Anthropic's valuation reached $183 billion. In November of the same year, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Anthropic announced the establishment of a new strategic partnership. As part of the cooperation, NVIDIA and Microsoft promised to invest up to $10 billion and $5 billion respectively in Anthropic. Anthropic has promised to purchase $30 billion worth of Azure computing power.
People familiar with the matter said that in addition to Sequoia Capital in this round of financing, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC and US hedge fund Coatue will each contribute $1.5 billion. The $15 billion investment from Microsoft and NVIDIA has been confirmed, and the remaining quota is being scrambled for by top global institutions.
Currently, the head - effect in AI competition is obvious. Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI have occupied the main financing share of global AI unicorns, squeezing the living space of small and medium - sized startups. However, there are hidden concerns behind the prosperity. Valuation bubbles, talent shortages, copyright, and regulatory risks are accumulating simultaneously. It remains highly uncertain who will emerge victorious in the end.
This article is from "Jiemian News". Author: Song Jianan. Republished by 36Kr with permission.