Anthropic receives $1 billion investment from Google.

• A generative AI startup, Anthropic, has received a new investment of over $1 billion from Google, as confirmed by a source close to the matter.
• Google's latest funding of $2 billion for Anthropic is in addition to its previous investments of $2 billion and 10% ownership stake in the startup, as well as a significant cloud contract between the two companies.
• Earlier this month, CNBC reported that Anthropic is in late-stage talks to raise a $2 billion funding round at a $60 billion valuation, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

A source close to the matter revealed to CNBC that Anthropic, a generative AI startup, has secured more than $1 billion in new investment.

Google has recently invested $2 billion in Anthropic, adding to its previous $2 billion investment and 10% ownership stake in the startup. Additionally, the two companies have a large cloud contract. Anthropic is best known for its Claude AI chatbot.

Earlier this month, CNBC reported that Anthropic, a key player in Silicon Valley's AI race, is in late-stage talks to raise a $2 billion funding round at a $60 billion valuation, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Anthropic's revenue reached $1 billion in December, representing a 10x increase year over year, according to a source. The majority of the company's revenue comes from enterprise sales.

Financial Times was first to report Google's investment.

Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI research executives, has experienced rapid growth since its launch of Claude in March 2023. The generative AI chatbot has been widely adopted by businesses across various functions, including sales, marketing, and customer service.

The generative AI market, comprising Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, is projected to reach $1 trillion in revenue within a decade. Amazon and Microsoft, as OpenAI's primary investor, are supporting generative AI startups with substantial investments and also developing their own technologies.

In November, Amazon announced an additional $4 billion investment in Anthropic, bringing its total investment in the startup to $8 billion. Despite being a minority investor, Anthropic confirmed to CNBC that Amazon does not have a board seat.

Since then, Anthropic has utilized Amazon Web Services' Trainium and Inferentia chips as its primary cloud and training partner to train and deploy its largest AI models.

Anthropic intensified its technology advancements during the previous year, and in October, the company announced that its AI agents possessed the ability to utilize computers like humans do to accomplish intricate tasks. Anthropic's Computer Use capability enables its technology to comprehend what's displayed on a computer screen, click buttons, enter text, navigate websites, and execute tasks through any software and real-time internet browsing, the company stated.

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.

In June, Anthropic unveiled its more potent AI model, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and in September, the company released Claude Enterprise, its largest product since the introduction of its chatbot.

The CEO of Anthropic is more confident than ever that they are "very close" to achieving powerful AI capabilities.