Anthropic, the developer of the artificial intelligence (AI) model "Claude," has seen its corporate valuation surge fivefold in eight months to $900 billion (approximately 1,350 trillion won). Amid recent controversies including Claude's role in warfare, the "Mythos" hacking tool dispute, and concerns over "Claude Co-Work" decimating the software industry, the company has drawn intense attention from the investment community, growing its valuation to a level rivaling OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, in this year's IPO market.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Anthropic is seeking to raise more than $30 billion based on a $900 billion valuation. Anthropic's valuation stood at just $183 billion as of last September but rose to $380 billion in February this year. It then surged to $900 billion this month, marking a steep climb. This level approaches the maximum $1 trillion (approximately 1,500 trillion won) valuation that OpenAI, led by CEO Sam Altman, is targeting in its IPO scheduled for the second half of this year. On February 12, Anthropic also raised $30 billion from investors including BlackRock, Blackstone, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Sequoia Capital, and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).
On January 12 this year, Anthropic instilled fear in the market that Claude Co-Work would replace software industry jobs en masse. Then on the 7th of last month, the company released the Mythos model, which could serve as a powerful hacking tool, sending shockwaves through Wall Street and the security industry. Anthropic's Claude also drew significant attention for demonstrating decisive capabilities in the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and during phases of the Middle East war. The company has also benefited from OpenAI's struggles, including stagnating user numbers, various lawsuits, and a narrowing technology gap with competitors. Anthropic's revenue is expected to reach an annualized $50 billion as of the end of the second quarter this year, up from around $9 billion at the end of last year.
Anthropic is preparing for a New York Stock Exchange listing in the second half of this year alongside OpenAI. The company was founded in 2021 by sibling co-founders CEO Dario Amodei and President Daniela Amodei, both formerly of OpenAI. All co-founders previously worked at OpenAI. They left the company in protest after OpenAI, which started as a nonprofit, accepted a massive investment from Microsoft and pursued for-profit operations.
