From OpenAI Spinoff to the Most Valuable AI Startup
Anthropic’s rise refers to the rapid growth of an AI startup founded by former OpenAI employees that, within four years, has reached a USD 965 billion (approx. RM4.43 trillion) valuation and a USD 47 billion (approx. RM216.2 billion) annual revenue run-rate, surpassing OpenAI’s valuation and becoming the most valuable AI startup by focusing on enterprise AI growth and large-scale Claude AI adoption. The company disclosed that its annualized revenue run-rate crossed USD 47 billion (approx. RM216.2 billion) earlier this month, up from USD 14 billion (approx. RM64.4 billion) in February and USD 5 billion (approx. RM23 billion) in August the previous year. That pace makes Anthropic one of the fastest-growing businesses ever recorded. It also highlights a broader shift in AI startup funding: investors now reward not only model quality but the ability to convert AI demand into long-term, contract-based enterprise revenue.
The Series H Round That Pushed Anthropic Past OpenAI
Anthropic’s latest Series H funding round raised USD 65 billion (approx. RM299 billion), lifting the company to a USD 965 billion (approx. RM4.43 trillion) post-money valuation and moving it ahead of OpenAI’s last reported USD 852 billion (approx. RM3.92 trillion) figure. The round arrived only months after a Series G that valued Anthropic at USD 380 billion (approx. RM1.75 trillion), emphasizing how quickly investor expectations have changed. The Series H was led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia Capital, alongside co-leads such as Capital Group, Coatue, D1 Capital Partners, GIC, ICONIQ, and XN, with further support from major asset managers and technology investors. According to Anthropic, “Since our Series G in February, adoption has continued to grow across global enterprise customers, and our run-rate revenue crossed USD 47 billion (approx. RM216.2 billion) earlier this month.”
Claude AI Adoption and the Enterprise Engine
Anthropic’s valuation surge is rooted in Claude AI adoption among large organizations rather than consumer hype. Eight of the Fortune 10 now use Claude, and the number of customers spending more than USD 1 million (approx. RM4.6 million) per year has grown from a dozen two years ago to over 1,000. Customers spending more than USD 100,000 (approx. RM460,000) annually grew 7x in the past year. Ramp data tracking payments across more than 50,000 businesses showed Anthropic’s share of combined OpenAI–Anthropic business spend rising from about 10% at the start of 2025 to over 65% by February 2026. Another report found Anthropic capturing more than 73% of first‑time enterprise AI customers, while OpenAI held around 26%. This concentration of enterprise AI growth explains why investors view Anthropic as the leading enterprise AI vendor.
Revenue Acceleration and the Road to an IPO
Anthropic’s revenue acceleration underpins its new valuation. The company began 2025 at USD 1 billion (approx. RM4.6 billion) in annualized revenue, reached USD 5 billion (approx. RM23 billion) eight months later, ended the year at USD 9 billion (approx. RM41.4 billion), and hit USD 14 billion (approx. RM64.4 billion) by February’s Series G. By April, run-rate revenue had reached USD 30 billion (approx. RM138 billion), and weeks later it crossed USD 47 billion (approx. RM216.2 billion). Analysts describe Anthropic as growing revenue at roughly 10x annually, compared with about 3x for OpenAI. Both companies are now preparing for potential IPOs, seeking public-market capital to fund expensive model training and large-scale deployments. Anthropic plans to use its new funds to expand compute capacity, deepen safety research, and support more Claude AI deployments for large enterprise customers facing capacity limits today.
Investor Confidence and the Future of Enterprise AI Growth
The breadth of Anthropic’s Series H investor list signals strong confidence that Claude is well positioned in the enterprise AI market. Alongside core backers such as Altimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia, the round attracted major institutions including Baillie Gifford, Blackstone, Brookfield, Fidelity, General Catalyst, Insight Partners, Jane Street, Lightspeed, T. Rowe Price, and Temasek. Many of these investors view AI startup funding through the lens of long-term infrastructure: Anthropic’s fresh deals with cloud and chip partners like Amazon, Google, Broadcom, and others are meant to ease the compute shortage behind Claude’s usage caps. In the words of Anthropic’s chief financial officer Krishna Rao, “Claude is increasingly indispensable to our growing global community of customers.” If enterprise AI growth continues at this pace, Anthropic’s current valuation may be a staging point rather than a peak.