Anthropic is raising, again.

Anthropic is in discussions with investors to raise at least $2 billion more in funding. This comes right after Amazon invested $1.25 billion in Anthropic last week.

What's going on here?

Anthropic is in talks to raise a massive new round of funding at a sky-high valuation.

What does this mean?

Many thought Amazon's huge investment would sour Anthropic's relationship with Google. Anthropic has indicated to potential investors that Google, which acquired a roughly 10% stake in Anthropic in 2022, is expected to participate in this new funding round.

With the new capital infusion, Anthropic is targeting a valuation between $20 billion to $30 billion. Based on their projected $200 million in annualized revenue by end of 2023, this would equate to revenue multiple upto 150x. For comparison, OpenAI is reportedly seeking an $80-90 billion valuation at a lower 80x multiple on $1 billion in annualized revenue.

Why should I care?

The strategic foundations of these funding rounds are weird, to say the least. Private investors are eager to join unusual corporate structures of non-profits and safety committees on top of these AI startups. Rival cloud providers like Amazon and Google are investing together. The revenue multiples are way higher than in public tech markets. The common thread? Everyone is betting big on AI.