According to foreign media reports, AI startup Anthropic has begun discussions with investors regarding a new round of funding. Sources familiar with the matter revealed that Anthropic's valuation after this new funding round could reach between $30 billion and $40 billion, roughly double the valuation completed earlier this year.

However, the negotiations are still in the early stages, and it remains unclear whether investors will accept such a high valuation. Materials indicate that Anthropic plans to provide detailed presentations to investors at a private tech conference hosted by Morgan Stanley in Los Angeles next month.

It is worth noting that Anthropic may ultimately hire an investment bank to facilitate the new round of funding. However, in general, startups do not typically hire investment banks to solicit investments, instead using complex funding rounds to attract investors, including sovereign wealth funds or corporate investors. Additionally, apart from venture capital firms, Anthropic has previously raised funds from corporate investors and is likely to do so again.

Nearly two weeks before the news broke, OpenAI was also revealed to raise $6.5 billion at a valuation of $150 billion, almost double the amount raised in the first quarter of this year. If the news is true, it means that OpenAI's valuation has surged by nearly 88% in less than 7 months. In February of this year, after completing several transactions such as venture capital firms and employee cashing out, OpenAI's valuation tripled in less than 10 months to $80 billion.

Analysts believe that this financing news shows that while OpenAI is conducting the latest round of financing, Anthropic is also trying to attract investors' attention. Although some investment companies have expressed doubts about the financial losses of AI startups in development and operations, Anthropic mainly generates revenue by selling access to its generative AI chatbot Claude and is regarded as OpenAI's main competitor.

Currently, Anthropic has raised about $7.6 billion in funds, including forward commitments, of which Amazon is Anthropic's largest investor.

Last September, Amazon initially invested $1.25 billion in Anthropic and promised a total investment of $4 billion. At the end of March this year, Amazon announced an additional investment of $2.75 billion in Anthropic, which is the largest venture capital investment in Amazon's history and also brings the investment figure close to the upper limit of the $4 billion commitment.

Given the increasingly close partnership between the two companies, Anthropic's new round of financing may involve Amazon again.

It is understood that Anthropic's cooperation with Amazon includes: applying its large language model Claude to Amazon Bedrock, and will also provide support for updates to Amazon's Alexa smart assistant.

In addition to Amazon, other investors in Anthropic include Google, Microsoft, Salesforce Ventures and Zoom Video Communications Inc.

Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives, Anthropic focuses on creating interpretable, safe, and controllable AI systems, prioritizing the development of models that adhere to ethical guidelines to minimize harmful or unpredictable outputs. Its flagship AI product, Claude, operates based on "Constitutional AI," guiding outputs through predefined principles to avoid generating harmful or discriminatory responses.

Before the news of Anthropic's funding emerged, reports frequently indicated that tech giants were vying to invest in OpenAI, with its valuation potentially exceeding $100 billion. At the end of last month, it was reported that OpenAI was seeking a new multi-billion dollar funding round, with Thrive Capital leading the investment of about $1 billion, and Microsoft also participating, which would push its valuation beyond $100 billion.

Simultaneously, Apple is also negotiating with OpenAI to join the new funding round. If discussions progress, the three companies with the highest market capitalization in the world (Microsoft, Apple, and Nvidia) will invest in OpenAI, demonstrating the market's high expectations for its technological potential.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has referred to his company as "the most capital-intensive startup in Silicon Valley history," and this new funding round is yet another testament to its formidable fundraising capabilities. If OpenAI's valuation exceeds $100 billion, it will become one of the few highly valued private startups, second only to ByteDance and SpaceX.