Anthropic nears funding at $170 billion value as revenue surges
Anthropic has also been in discussions with the Qatar Investment Authority and Singapore's sovereign fund GIC about participating in the round, the person said. Other potential investors include Amazon.com Inc., which previously bet billions on the company. As the most recent funding talks came together, Anthropic's sales have surged. The company was generating about $4 billion in annual recurring revenue earlier this month, Bloomberg previously reported. By the end of July, that number had climbed to about $5 billion, according to one of the people. The company expects its recurring revenue could hit $9 billion by the end of this year. The new financing would mark a significant jump in valuation for the company and cement its status as one of the world's leading AI developers. Anthropic was valued at $61.5 billion in a $3.5 billion round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners earlier this year.Lightspeed is also participating in the new round, according to a person familiar with the matter. Other VCs in talks to participate include Menlo Ventures and Alkeon Capital Management.The company is taking checks no smaller than $200 million in the deal. The financing may ultimately involve a second lead investor, one person said. The discussions are still being finalized and the details could change.Anthropic, Iconiq, GIC, Lightspeed, Amazon and Menlo Ventures declined to comment. Representatives for QIA and Alkeon did not immediately respond to requests for commentAnthropic, founded in 2021 by former employees of OpenAI, has positioned itself as a reliable, safety-conscious firm that users can trust. The new funding will fuel Anthropic's competition with OpenAI and Elon Musk's xAI, each of which has raised billions in capital this year to finance their investments in data centers and talent for building AI models.OpenAI was most recently valued at $300 billion, including money raised. Musk is said to be seeking a valuation of as much as $200 billion for xAI.Leading large-language model developers like OpenAI and xAI have previously turned to deep-pocketed Middle Eastern backers such as Abu Dhabi's MGX for funding. Sovereign wealth funds typically have far more assets at their disposal to invest than traditional venture capital firms.In a recent memo to employees, first reported by Wired, Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei acknowledged the need to raise funds from the Middle East after having previously voiced concerns about taking money from authoritarian countries. 'Unfortunately, I think 'No bad person should ever benefit from our success' is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on,' he wrote. Elevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea. Jane St: How an options trader smelt a rat when others raised a toast
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Hindustan Times
a minute ago
- Hindustan Times
Tesla to pay $243 million over fatal autopilot crash
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The verdict comes as Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk faces enormous investor pressure after the company's stock has been battered, first by his close affiliation with President Donald Trump, and then by his dramatic falling out with the president. Musk has staked Tesla's future in part on autonomous driving as the company is launching a robotaxi business. But when Tesla recently announced disappointing second-quarter earnings, Musk warned that the company is in for a few 'rough quarters' as incentives like the EV tax credit go away in the US. At trial, the jury heard testimony from the driver of the Model S, family members of the woman who died, company engineers and various outside experts who discussed whether Autopilot played a role in the collision. George McGee, the driver of the Model S, had engaged his vehicle's driver-assistance system while traveling home from work. 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Lawyers for the estate of Benavides Leon and her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, argued Tesla's Autopilot encourages complacency and that the company and Musk have overstated the system's capabilities, leading drivers to be overconfident in its abilities. They also alleged that Tesla failed to add safeguards to ensure the software was only available on roadways where it was designed to be used and features to monitor the attentiveness of drivers. 'Today's verdict represents justice for Naibel's tragic death and Dillon's lifelong injuries, holding Tesla and Musk accountable for propping up the company's trillion-dollar valuation with self-driving hype at the expense of human lives,' Brett Schreiber, lead attorney for the crash victims, said in a statement. Tesla, as it has in other cases, blamed driver error for the collision. Lawyers for the company argued repeatedly that McGee was an aggressive driver with a history of speeding, and that he took his eyes off the road and his hands off the wheel despite warnings in the owners' manual that drivers must stay engaged. The company has maintained there were no defects in its software and that Autopilot operated exactly as designed. Throughout the trial, Tesla defense attorney Joel Smith said no driver-assistance technology on the market in 2019 would have been able to prevent the crash. The automotive industry categorizes automation systems in vehicles from Level 0 to 5, based on what features are available. Level 0 features simply pass on information to the driver, like sounding a warning when you're driving out of a traffic lane. Tesla's Autopilot is classified as Level 2 because it requires constant driver input and supervision. The case is Benavides v. Tesla, 1:21-cv-21940, US District Court, Southern District of Florida (Miami). (An earlier version of the story corrected the damages amount. Updates with additional details about damages in third paragraph.) More stories like this are available on ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
India Today
31 minutes ago
- India Today
Appeals court reinstates case against X over child pornography video
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Time of India
5 hours ago
- Time of India
Govt to launch ‘Rajasthan AI Policy 2025' soon
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