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Anthropic in Talks to Raise $30 Billion at a $900 Billion Valuation
Bloomberg and the New York Times both reported this week that Anthropic is in early discussions with investors to raise at least $30 billion in fresh financing at a valuation above $900 billion. The NYT put the upper end at $950 billion. The round is expected to close as soon as the end of May 2026 — no term sheet has been signed yet.
The numbers are striking in context. Anthropic raised $30 billion in its Series G in February 2026 at a $380 billion valuation. A successful close at $900 billion would nearly triple that figure in under three months. OpenAI was last valued at $852 billion in March 2026 — meaning Anthropic would, for the first time, leapfrog its rival to become the world's most valuable private AI company. Only Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia currently trade above $900 billion as public companies.
The valuation surge is driven by revenue. Anthropic's ARR has hit $44 billion after Q1 2026 revenue grew 80x year-over-year. Claude Code alone is generating $2.5 billion in annualized revenue — more than doubled since January 1. The number of customers spending over $100,000 annually on Claude grew 7x year-over-year. Enterprise revenue now represents over half of all Claude Code revenue.
Anthropic's largest current investors are Amazon (committed up to $25 billion), Google (committed up to $40 billion), Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC, and Coatue Management. It is unclear whether these firms will participate in the new round. Anthropic is also considering an IPO as soon as October 2026, per Bloomberg.
PwC Deploys Claude to Hundreds of Thousands of Professionals Globally
Anthropic announced on May 14 that PwC — one of the world's largest professional services firms — is deploying Claude across its entire global workforce. PwC will roll out Claude Code and Claude Cowork starting with US teams, establish a joint Center of Excellence with Anthropic, and train and certify 30,000 PwC professionals on Claude. CEO Dario Amodei said Claude could ultimately reach "hundreds of thousands" of PwC employees worldwide.
PwC's Krishna Rao said Claude was becoming "increasingly critical" in business operations. The deployment covers technology, deal execution, and enterprise function reinvention for PwC's clients — meaning Claude's reach extends beyond PwC staff to the companies PwC advises. This is one of the largest single enterprise AI deployments announced by any lab in 2026.
Anthropic Forms $200 Million Partnership With the Gates Foundation
Also announced May 14: Anthropic is forming a $200 million partnership with the Gates Foundation focused on global health, life sciences, education, and economic mobility. The partnership will apply Claude to real-world problems in areas where the Gates Foundation has existing programs — drug discovery, disease surveillance, education access in low-income countries, and agricultural productivity for smallholder farmers.
Anthropic said it will publish its thinking and decision-making as the programs are set up — a commitment to transparency on how frontier AI is deployed in public-interest contexts that is unusual for a commercial AI lab.
Claude for Small Business Launches
Anthropic also launched Claude for Small Business on May 13 — a package of pre-built connectors and ready-to-run workflows designed to put Claude inside the tools small businesses already use daily, without requiring technical setup. The launch targets the segment below enterprise: companies that cannot deploy a Center of Excellence but still want AI automation across their operations. Pricing and specific connector details were not disclosed at launch.
Google I/O Is Three Days Away
Google I/O 2026 keynote is Monday, May 19, at 10am PT. With Anthropic's valuation surge dominating the week's AI news, Google enters I/O under pressure to demonstrate that Gemini's capabilities justify its own infrastructure investment. Treasury Secretary Bessent's comment last week — that he expects a "big step-function jump" from upcoming Gemini and OpenAI model releases — has heightened expectations for Monday's keynote. A new Gemini model release, Aluminium OS details, Android XR glasses preview, and expanded agentic tooling across Google Cloud are all expected.
Full May 2026 AI news coverage: AI News May 2026 — All Releases and Announcements