AI startup Anthropic announced on Monday that it has successfully raised $3.5 billion in its latest funding round, achieving a post-money valuation of $61.5 billion. This significant Series E funding round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and saw participation from a diverse group of investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Cisco Investments, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, General Catalyst, Jane Street, Menlo Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures. With this latest investment, Anthropic’s total funding has now reached an impressive $18.2 billion, according to data from Crunchbase.
In a blog post detailing the investment, Anthropic outlined its plans for the new capital, stating that it will be used to advance the development of next-generation AI systems, expand its computing capacity, enhance research in mechanistic interpretability and alignment, and accelerate its international expansion efforts. The company emphasized its commitment to creating AI systems that function as true collaborators, working alongside teams to tackle complex projects, synthesize information across various fields, and help organizations achieve significant impact.
This substantial fundraising round comes on the heels of the launch of Anthropic’s latest flagship AI model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet. This model is characterized as a “hybrid reasoning” system, capable of carefully considering queries before providing answers. The introduction of this model is part of Anthropic’s broader initiative to simplify the user experience associated with its AI products. Currently, many AI chatbots present users with a complex model selection process, requiring them to choose from multiple options that differ in cost and capability. Anthropic aims to streamline this experience, ideally creating a single model that can handle all tasks effectively without overwhelming users with choices.
Anthropic’s business is experiencing significant growth, with its annual revenue run rate reportedly around $1 billion last year. This figure has seen a 30% increase so far in 2025, driven by revenue generated from the API that serves its models and growing subscriptions to its AI chatbot, Claude. However, the company is also investing heavily in the development of its AI systems, projecting a burn rate of $3 billion for the year, as reported by The Information.
To enhance profitability, Anthropic has shifted some of its focus towards the release of new tools and subscription tiers, including computer-using “agents,” a desktop client, and mobile applications. The company has also expanded its presence in Europe and made several high-profile hires, including Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger, OpenAI co-founder Durk Kingma, and former OpenAI safety researcher Jan Leike.
Additionally, Anthropic has strengthened its partnership with Amazon, which has become a major investor and collaborator for the AI startup. In November, Amazon invested an additional $4 billion in Anthropic and announced plans to work together to optimize its custom AI chips, Trainium, for model training workloads. Furthermore, Amazon and Anthropic are collaborating to enhance the Alexa virtual assistant experience with the introduction of Alexa+, with Anthropic’s models powering various aspects of this upgraded service.
Anthropic was co-founded in 2021 by CEO Dario Amodei, who previously served as the Vice President of Research at OpenAI. Amodei reportedly left OpenAI following disagreements over the company’s strategic direction and roadmap. He brought along several former OpenAI employees to establish Anthropic, including Jack Clark, who was OpenAI’s former policy lead. The company often positions itself as being more safety-focused than its predecessor, OpenAI, emphasizing its commitment to developing AI systems that prioritize safety and ethical considerations in their deployment.
