Highlights
- Company seeks $900bn valuation, surpassing OpenAI.
- Revenue jumped fivefold to $45bn annually.
- Capacity shortages force user restrictions.
The company's chief financial officer, Krishna Rao, has been speaking with potential investors about the funding round, the Financial Times reported.
No final deal has been agreed, though the transaction could happen by summer. A successful raise would bring Anthropic close to joining technology giants like Apple, Microsoft and Amazon in the trillion-dollar club.
This latest fundraising comes shortly after Anthropic secured $30bn in February at a $380bn value.
The company, which focuses heavily on AI safety, has seen Claude gain substantial popularity since then.
Programmers have particularly embraced the tool for writing code and running automated AI systems called agents.
Demand outstrips supply
People close to the company say Anthropic expects annual revenue to reach $45bn, up sharply from $9bn recorded at the end of last year. This represents a fivefold increase in just months.
While ChatGPT maintains its position as the most popular AI chatbot, Claude has carved out a strong following.
The tool performs particularly well at coding tasks, allowing people without deep technical skills to write basic programmes. Professional developers also use it to speed up their work.
Anthropic has deliberately targeted business clients, taking a different approach from OpenAI's consumer strategy.
The company needs more funding partly because it lacks sufficient computing power. Claude runs on massive data centres, and sudden growth in user numbers has created a capacity problem.
Anthropic has been forced to limit access during busy periods, which could slow its expansion.
The firm struck a deal with SpaceX this week to rent computing capacity from the space company's AI systems.
Anthropic is one of three major AI companies potentially planning stock market listings this year.
SpaceX is preparing a summer float that could value it at $1.75tn, while OpenAI also aims to go public above $1tn.
However, these rapidly growing valuations have prompted concerns about whether the AI sector is experiencing a bubble similar to the internet crash of 2000.
