Google has announced plans to pour up to $40 billion into Anthropic, the fast-rising AI firm, through a mix of cash and cutting-edge computing resources.
The deal, first reported by Bloomberg, begins with an immediate $10 billion investment at Anthropic’s current $350 billion valuation. Another $30 billion could follow if the company hits specific performance goals, sources close to Anthropic confirm.
This major backing comes hot on the heels of Anthropic’s limited release of its latest model, Mythos, to a handful of trusted partners earlier this month. The company describes Mythos as its most capable system to date, with strong potential in cybersecurity.
To prevent misuse, Anthropic has kept broader access under wraps while partnering with select groups to test and mitigate risks, even as reports emerge of the model reaching unauthorised users. Scaling such advanced technology would require massive resources, adding to its challenges.
In today’s fierce AI competition, control over computing power has become the key battleground. Rivals like OpenAI are snapping up huge deals with cloud providers, chip makers, and energy firms to secure the capacity needed for training and deploying these systems.
Anthropic has ramped up its own efforts recently, sealing a data centre agreement with CoreWeave and landing $5 billion from Amazon as part of a $100 billion cloud spending pledge for around 5 gigawatts of compute over time.
Google stands out as both a competitor, with its own Gemini models, and a crucial supplier. Anthropic relies heavily on Google Cloud’s tensor processing units, or TPUs, which offer a strong alternative to Nvidia’s chips for AI workloads.
Their partnership dates back further; earlier this month, Anthropic teamed up with Google and Broadcom for several gigawatts of TPU capacity starting in 2027, later detailed as 3.5 gigawatts. The new investment expands this with an additional 5 gigawatts over the next five years and room to grow.
Anthropic’s valuation stood at $350 billion in February, but investors are now eyeing $800 billion or more. The firm is also mulling an initial public offering as soon as October.