AI startups’ high-velocity valuations are shooting sky-high

Investors are pouring billions into AI startups at a feverish pace, and valuations are shooting sky-high.

Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that Anthropic is closing in on a $5 billion fundraising round, with an eye-popping valuation of $170 billion. That’s a 176% increase in five short months from its $61.5 billion valuation in March.

Anthropic’s sharp rise in value comes as its sales are increasing at a brisk pace. Bloomberg reports that the startup is pulling in $5 billion in annual recurring revenue, and that the company sees that reaching $9 billion by the end of the year.

OpenAI’s valuation roughly doubled over six months from $157 billion last October to $300 billion after raising $40 billion in a round led by SoftBank.

Middle East money

As AI companies look for deep-pocketed investors to help pay to train new models and build data centers, all eyes are pointing to sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East.

Wired reports that Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s cofounder and CEO, recently announced to staff that the company would pursue investments from Middle Eastern countries, despite earlier opposition.

During President Trump’s trip to the Middle East, a flurry of investments were announced, sending a clear signal that the taps were open.

Saudi Arabia’s Humain announced a deal with Nvidia to build 500 megawatts of AI data centers filled with the company’s GPUs, and OpenAI announced a partnership to build “Stargate UAE.” There were also reports that OpenAI has discussed raising money from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

And the rush to invest in AI isn’t just limited to the startups seeking to build foundational models. Companies deep in the AI ecosystem like Databricks and Scale AI are currently valued at $62 billion and $29 billion, respectively. Scale AI recently saw its CEO depart to run Meta’s “Superintelligence Lab”; it also secured a $14.3 billion investment from the company.