Anthropic is a generative AI startup co-founded by OpenAI veterans to compete with OpenAI. Anthropic has raised $450 million in a Series C funding round. The funding was led by Spark Capital and had participation from several tech giants, including Google, Salesforce, Zoom, Sound Ventures, and Menlo Ventures. With this new funding tranche, Anthropic’s total war chest stands at an impressive $1.45 billion. Hence, making it one of the best-funded startups in the AI space.
Also Read: AI and Beyond: Exploring the Future of Generative AI
Anthropic’s Tech and Promise
Anthropic startup is working on developing AI services that can positively impact businesses and consumers today and in the future. The company’s technology uses AI to perform various conversational and text-processing tasks. It claims to have over a dozen customers across the healthcare, HR, and education industries.
The Promise of Anthropic’s tech and its mission to provide reliable AI services that put safety at the frontier have impressed tech giants like Google and Salesforce. Zoom recently partnered with Anthropic to “build customer-facing AI products focused on reliability, productivity, and safety.”
Spark Capital’s Fraser Kelton Joins Anthropic
Additionally, Spark Capital recently hired Fraser Kelton, the former head of product at OpenAI, as a venture partner. Spark Capital was an early investor in Anthropic. Since then, the VC firm has redoubled its efforts to seek out early-stage AI startups, particularly in the generative AI space, which remains red hot.
With Fraser Kelton joining Spark Capital, it seems almost destined for the VC firm to invest in Anthropic’s latest funding round. Yasmin Razavi is a general partner at Spark Capital. She said, “All of us at Spark are excited to partner with Dario and the entire Anthropic team on their mission to build reliable and honest AI systems.”
Anthropic Competes with OpenAI
The nearly $1.45 billion raised by Anthropic in its latest funding round almost tops the list of the best-funded startups in AI, eclipsed only by OpenAI, which has raised over $11.3 billion to date. However, the funding gap between the two companies is significant.
Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, is a former VP of research at OpenAI. He launched Anthropic as a public benefit corporation in 2021, taking with him several OpenAI employees, including the former policy lead, Jack Clark. Amodei split from OpenAI after a disagreement over the company’s direction, namely the startup’s increasingly commercial focus.
Final Thoughts
Anthropic, a startup by OpenAI veterans, has raised significant money in its latest funding round. It seems like the company has impressed some of the biggest names in tech. With an impressive war chest, Anthropic is poised to impact the AI space significantly. Whether or not it can compete with OpenAI remains to be seen. However, one thing is for sure; the competition in the AI space is heating up.
