Sequoia will invest heavily, Anthropic’s financing exceeds $25 billion, with a valuation as high as $350 billion.

In the capital race in the field of artificial intelligence, Sequoia Capital is breaking with convention by making its first large-scale investment in OpenAI’s major rival, Anthropic. This move not only marks a significant strategic shift for the veteran venture capital firm, but also boosts Anthropic’s new round of fundraising to a historic high.

On January 18, according to the Financial Times, sources revealed that Anthropic’s target for this round of funding is as high as $25 billion or more, led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and U.S. investment firm Coatue, each contributing $1.5 billion.

Tech giants Microsoft and Nvidia have pledged a combined investment of up to $15 billion, while the remaining funding gap of over $10 billion will be filled by venture capital firms including Sequoia Capital and other investors. This massive injection will bring Anthropic’s valuation to $350 billion, doubling from $170 billion just four months ago.

This deal highlights top investment institutions’ “full coverage” strategy in the AI track, no longer limited to betting on a single winner. Sequoia Capital has previously invested in OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI, and now joins the ranks of Anthropic’s investors, showing strong market confidence in the growth potential of leading AI model vendors.

It is reported that although fundraising talks are still ongoing and final figures may change, the transaction is expected to be completed in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, Anthropic is actively preparing for its initial public offering (IPO), possibly as early as this year.

Sequoia Capital’s Strategic Shift

According to reports, sources said Anthropic has not yet made a final decision on which investors to accept in this financing round and the total amount remains variable, but the deal is expected to be finalized within the next few weeks.

Reportedly, Sequoia Capital’s proposed investment comes right after its senior management reshuffle last year. Roelof Botha, previously in charge at Sequoia, had taken a cautious stance toward concentrating investments in a few highly valued startups and had attracted attention for missing out on several previous rounds of Anthropic’s financing.

Roelof Botha said in an interview last year that venture capital is not a type of asset, “putting more money into Silicon Valley does not create more great companies.”

However, after Roelof Botha left his position in November last year, partners Pat Grady and Alfred Lin were elected as co-leaders, and Sequoia’s investment direction clearly changed.

As an early investor in Google, Apple, Airbnb, and Stripe, Sequoia had already participated in OpenAI’s fundraising rounds last year as well as in Musk’s xAI.

The report notes that people familiar with Sequoia’s thinking say that although venture capital firms typically avoid backing directly competing startups in the same sector, the huge financial opportunities brought by artificial intelligence have changed this traditional logic.

One such person said: “This (Anthropic deal) is a financing round so large that it has already shifted from venture capital investment to equity investment.”

Sequoia holds large stakes in both OpenAI and xAI, and firmly believes this is not a winner-take-all contest, and that each company will have its own unique capabilities.

Performance Explosion and IPO Preparation

Anthropic owns the Claude chatbot, and has captured a lucrative niche in the market by building AI tools for software engineers.

The company’s revenue is soaring—annualized revenue has grown from $1 billion a year ago to about $10 billion now, a tenfold increase.

According to previous Bloomberg reports, with the rapid expansion of its business, Anthropic has started preparing for a public listing, which could happen as early as this year. The company has hired law firm Wilson Sonsini to start preparations and has had preliminary talks with banks about going public.

It’s not just Anthropic—tech unicorns including OpenAI and Musk’s SpaceX are all laying the groundwork for public offerings. If these potential IPOs materialize, they could become some of the largest in history.

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