Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, Speaks on Financials and Future of Generative AI at Davos Event
Google has agreed to invest over $1 billion in generative AI startup Anthropic, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to CNBC. This new funding builds on Google’s previous investments of $2 billion in Anthropic and 10% ownership stake in the startup, as well as a large cloud contract between the two companies.
The funding comes as Anthropic is in late-stage talks to raise a funding round of $2 billion at a $60 billion valuation, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, as previously reported. The startup’s revenue has seen a massive growth, with annualized revenue of over $1 billion, a 10x year-over-year increase, primarily coming from enterprise sales.
Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI research executives, launched its popular chatbot Claude in March 2023, which has seen rapid adoption across sales, marketing, and customer service functions. The company’s generative AI technology is expected to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade, with other major players like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta also investing heavily in the space.
Amazon, a minority investor in Anthropic, has committed $8 billion to the startup, with Google’s latest investment adding to its total stake. Anthropic has used Amazon Web Services’ Trainium and Inferentia chips to train and deploy its largest AI models. The startup has also made significant advancements in its technology, including the ability for its AI agents to use computers like humans to complete complex tasks.
The company’s Computer Use feature allows its technology to interpret what’s on a computer screen, select buttons, enter text, navigate websites, and execute tasks through any software and real-time internet browsing. OpenAI, Anthropic’s competitor, plans to introduce a similar feature in the near future.
