Anthropic is reportedly closing in on a deal that would value it at $60 billion as investors pile into AI companies.
The AI startup is backed by Amazon, and its latest funding round would propel it into the top five most valuable unlisted startups in the US — three of which are AI companies, according to data from CB Insights as of January 7.
The power and popularity of generative AI has led to Big Tech and startups using billions to fund their AI projects. As December came to a close, UBS said Big Tech was on pace to have spent $222 billion on building AI in 2024.
Apple, which was notably late to join the AI craze, has partnered with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to Apple Intelligence on new iPhone models, a move that may have helped boost OpenAI’s valuation.
Anthropic’s round of funding was led by venture firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, according to The Wall Street Journal. The $60 billion figure includes the money it plans to raise this round.
Here are the top five most valuable unlisted companies.
SpaceX: $350 billion
SpaceX is one of two startups in the top five that aren’t primarily AI companies. The designer, maker, and launcher of rockets and spacecraft was founded by billionaire Elon Musk in 2002, using a $100 million investment from the sale of PayPal.
The startup employs about 12,000 staff, with 200 rocket launches under its belt. One of Musk’s missions is to colonize Mars by 2050 with reusable rockets.
A deal worth $1.25 billion made SpaceX the most valuable private startup, with a valuation of $350 billion, Bloomberg reported in December.
OpenAI: $157 billion
OpenAI was founded in 2015 by its current CEO, Sam Altman, and Musk. The release of AI chatbot ChatGPT in 2022 took the tech industry by storm. The startup almost doubled its valuation from $86 billion to $157 billion after a fundraising round in October, according to the Journal.
Since ChatGPT’s release, the AI assistant garnered over 200 million weekly users, OpenAI said in August.
Stripe: $70 billion
The other non-AI startup in the top five is Stripe, a payment software company founded in 2009 by brothers Patrick and John Collison.
Although Stripe isn’t classified as an AI company, its CFO joined the board of AI startup Vercel in December. Stripe began buying back some of its shares in November at a $70 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg.
Databricks: $62 billion
Databricks, a cloud-based data and AI company, announced a $10 billion funding round in December that would bring its valuation to $62 billion. It launched its AI model, DBRX, in March 2024.
“Generative AI is going to disrupt any software company that exists today,” Ali Ghodsi, CEO of Databricks, previously said to Business Insider.
He added, “These models are going to change how humans interact with machines and how machines interact with humans.”
Anthropic: $60 billion
In 2021, ex-OpenAI employees founded Anthropic. The startup has since started competing with the ChatGPT maker with its own chatbot, Claude. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei was the vice president of research at OpenAI before leaving in 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile.
While ChatGPT has captured the attention of casual users who want to make a meal plan or get essay help, Anthropic’s AI has been attracting developers when it comes to coding. CB Insights previously valued it at just over $16 billion.
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