Anthropic is set to more than double its valuation to over US$150 billion as discussions with Middle Eastern investors heat up, according to people familiar with the matter.
The potential funding round would cement the Claude chatbot maker's position among other AI industry titans as competition intensifies for development resources and market share.
AI investment reaches unprecedented levels
OpenAI leads the funding race with a massive $40 billion round that values the ChatGPT maker at $300 billion, while Elon Musk's xAI has raised $10 billion in combined debt and equity, with previous rounds valuing the company at $45 billion.
Venture capitalists invested a record $97 billion into U.S. AI startups last year, with almost half of all startup investment flowing to AI companies.
MGX, Abu Dhabi's large-scale AI investment fund, represents the primary Middle Eastern interest in Anthropic, having previously acquired almost $500 million in Anthropic shares from the defunct crypto exchange FTX.
Revenue still trails valuation surge
Anthropic generated $1 billion in annual revenue in 2024 and projects $2.2 billion for 2025, representing significant growth but still trailing OpenAI's projected performance.
OpenAI itself is targeting $12.7 billion for 2025, maintaining over 500 million weekly active users across its ChatGPT platform.
xAI generates ~$100 million annually, reflecting its newer market positioning - however the launch of its benchmark leading Grok 4 platform may see that figure grow exponentially.
Anthropic's latest $61.5 billion valuation represents roughly 58X its annualised revenue, although consideraby down from ~150X a year ago.
The company secured 80% of its revenue from enterprise subscriptions, positioning Claude as a business-focused alternative to its consumer-oriented competitors.
However, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is rumoured to have raised internal concerns about accepting investment from entities linked to authoritarian regimes, according to a Wired report.
"Unfortunately, I think 'no bad person should ever benefit from our success' is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on," Amodei reportedly wrote in an internal memo.
The company previously avoided direct fundraising from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds but appears willing to reconsider given competitive pressures.
Strategic positioning
Anthropic's current $61.5 billion valuation stemmed from a $3.5 billion Series E round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners in March 2025.
Amazon maintains its position as Anthropic's largest strategic investor with up to $8 billion committed, while Google contributed >$3 billion total across multiple rounds.
Meta invested invested $14.3 billion ScaleAI, acquiring a 49% non-voting stake and increasing the firm's valuation to $29 billion.
The funding landscape is awash with unprecedented investor appetite for AI development - despite profitability yet to materialise across much of the sector.
For instance, OpenAI reported $5 billion in losses on $3.7 billion revenue for 2024, with projected losses reaching $14 billion by 2026.
Neither Anthropic, nor its primary competitors are set to achieve profitability any time soon, as the massive capex for training and operating large language models continues to grow.
Market implications and competitive dynamics
SoftBank leads OpenAI's $40 billion round with $30 billion, though this could reduce to $20 billion if OpenAI fails to restructure as a for-profit entity by December 31.
The potential Anthropic valuation increase would position the company closer to OpenAI's market worth whilst maintaining significant distance from xAI's more modest assessment.
MGX's involvement spans multiple AI investments, including co-investment in OpenAI's "Stargate" data centre project, suggesting a coordinated Middle Eastern strategy for AI market participation.
It's expected multi billion-dollar deals will continue to be made, as AI companies race to secure computing resources and the talent necessary for next-generation model development.
