Anthropic secures $3.5 billion at $61.5 billion valuation amid AI funding surge

Anthropic‘s latest $3.5 billion funding round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, showcases the enduring investor confidence in leading AI developers despite sky-high valuations. The company’s dramatic rise from startup to AI powerhouse mirrors the broader acceleration of enterprise AI adoption, with its chatbot Claude gaining significant market share among business users since its 2023 debut.

The big picture: Anthropic secured a $3.5 billion Series E funding round at a $61.5 billion post-money valuation, with Lightspeed Venture Partners contributing $1 billion.

• The round attracted major investors including Salesforce Ventures, Cisco Investments, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and several prominent venture capital firms.
• The financing establishes Anthropic as one of the world’s most valuable private companies.

Behind the numbers: Anthropic’s valuation is backed by exceptional revenue growth and market penetration.

• The company reached $1 billion in annualized revenue by December 2024, representing 1,000% year-over-year growth.
• Revenue has continued accelerating, growing 30% in just the first two months of 2025.

Key details: Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers including siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, Anthropic has positioned itself as a research-focused and safety-oriented alternative to OpenAI.

What they’re saying: “With this investment, Anthropic will advance its development of next-generation AI systems, expand its compute capacity, deepen its research in mechanistic interpretability and alignment, and accelerate its international expansion,” the company stated in its announcement.

Where we go from here: The new funding will support Anthropic’s expansion into next-generation AI systems while maintaining its emphasis on safety and interpretability research.