Anthropic is reportedly in talks to raise $750 million with the help of Menlo Ventures.
The artificial intelligence startup’s valuation before this round is $18.4 billion, Reuters reported Wednesday (Dec. 20), citing an unnamed source.
Anthropic, whose co-founder siblings Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei are veterans of rival OpenAI, already has investments from Amazon and Google.
As PYMNTS wrote in September at the time of the Amazon investment, many companies are pouring money into Anthropic, including the venture arms of both Salesforce and Zoom, as well as SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest operator.
OpenAI’s board approached Dario Amodei — Anthropic’s CEO — in November about replacing Sam Altman at the rival company and possibly combining the two companies, Reuters reported.
PYMNTS contacted Anthropic for comment but did not receive a reply.
The reported funding round comes at a time when business leaders are embracing AI, according to findings from a PYMNTS Intelligence-Billtrust study.
The study found this is especially true when it comes to attempting to modernize and simplify expensive, outdated and manual approaches, which now make up the majority of B2B payment procedures.
“[Eighty-four percent] of business leaders surveyed … believe generative AI will positively impact the workforce, enabling a higher level of customer-centricity and delivering more precise predictions compared to conventional technologies,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this week.
Additional PYMNTS Intelligence research, produced with AI-ID, showed that nearly 80% of retail industry businesses rank generative AI as the most impactful emerging technology, with 92% already using the technology to offer real-time, tailored customer experiences.
Last month, Menlo — which has invested in Anthropic in the past — raised $1.35 billion to invest in fledgling AI ventures. The new capital will be split between early-stage fund Menlo XVI and early growth fund Menlo Inflection III.
“The place where valuations got the most egregious were in the growth market where we don’t play,” Partner Matt Murphy said at the time, adding that Menlo’s limited partners appreciated that the firm stuck to its early-stage goal and “stayed focused and disciplined.”
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