The valuation of Anthropic, which operates the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot "Claude," has jumped to about 545 trillion won. Alongside a massive fundraising, it also donated a large sum to a political action committee that supports AI regulation.
Anthropic said on the 12th (local time) that it raised $30 billion, about 43 trillion won, in a Series G round led by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and venture investor Coatue. That put the company's valuation at $380 billion, about 545 trillion won. It more than doubled in about five months from $183 billion in Sep. last year.
BlackRock, Blackstone, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Sequoia Capital, and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) participated in the round. Investments announced by Microsoft and Nvidia in Nov. last year were also included.
Anthropic initially aimed to raise $10 billion and later increased the target to $20 billion, but the actual amount raised far exceeded that. The company said growing demand from corporate customers was behind the larger investment.
According to Anthropic, its annualized revenue rose from $100 million in Jan. 2024 to $1 billion in Jan. last year, and reached $14 billion last month. The company emphasized that Claude is deployed across all three major cloud platforms—Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
The $380 billion valuation is close to rival OpenAI's $500 billion.
Anthropic also said it donated $20 million, about 290 billion won, to the super PAC "Public First Action," which supports stronger AI regulation. The group advocates for greater AI model transparency, federal-level regulation, export controls on AI chips, and responses to AI-enabled biological and cyber threats.
Public First Action has reportedly set a fundraising target of $50 million to $75 million. It is also running ads supporting some Republican politicians.
Anthropic said that "flexible regulation is needed to control risks while preserving the benefits of AI," noting it will actively take part in the policy discussion process.
By contrast, the super PAC "Leading the Future," led by OpenAI and venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, argues for unified federal regulation and limits on separate state-level rules. The group is said to have raised about $125 million.