Anthropic is in discussions to secure funding at a $60 billion valuation.

• Anthropic, an AI startup, is in discussions to secure up to $2 billion in funding at a valuation of $60 billion, a source close to the matter has revealed.
• Lightspeed Venture Partners is leading the funding round, according to the person.
• Among the most highly valued AI startups is Anthropic, which was founded by former OpenAI research executives.

CNBC has confirmed that Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup founded by ex-OpenAI research executives, is in late-stage talks to raise as much as $2 billion at a $60 billion valuation.

Lightspeed Venture Partners is leading the funding round, according to a source who requested anonymity due to confidentiality concerns. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the funding news.

Anthropic, a company that has received significant support, is the developer of the AI chatbot Claude. Similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, Claude has gained widespread popularity among businesses that have integrated generative AI chatbots into their sales, marketing, and customer service operations.

Generative AI is a hotly contested market, with tech giants such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Amazon, and Microsoft vying for dominance. To stay ahead, these companies are investing heavily in generative AI startups and developing their own technologies.

The annualized revenue of Anthropic is approximately $875 million, mainly from enterprise sales, according to a source. Lightspeed, an investor in Anthropic, did not provide any comment on the current funding round.

In November, Amazon announced that it would invest an additional $4 billion in Anthropic, bringing its total investment to $8 billion. Anthropic confirmed to CNBC at the time that Amazon remains a minority investor and does not have a board seat. Google committed to invest $2 billion in Anthropic last year, after previously confirming it had taken a 10% stake in the startup alongside a large cloud contract between the two companies.

Anthropic has named Amazon Web Services as its "primary cloud and training partner" for its AI models, and will use Trainium and Inferentia chips to train and deploy its largest models.

Anthropic intensified its development throughout the previous year and announced in October that its AI agents could use a computer like a human to complete intricate tasks. Anthropic's new Computer Use capability enables its technology to comprehend what's displayed on a computer screen, click buttons, enter text, navigate websites, and perform tasks through any software and real-time internet browsing.

Jared Kaplan, Anthropic's chief science officer, stated in an interview with CNBC that the tool can perform tasks with "tens or even hundreds of steps" in the same way that we use computers.

OpenAI reportedly plans to introduce a similar feature soon.

Anthropic launched Claude Enterprise, its largest new product since its chatbot's introduction, aimed at businesses seeking to incorporate its AI technology. Prior to this, Anthropic introduced Claude 3.5 Sonnet, a more potent AI model.

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