Sequoia Capital will participate in an investment round for AI startup Anthropic, TechCrunch reported on Jan. 18, citing the Financial Times.
TechCrunch said the move is unusual in Silicon Valley venture capital, where firms do not typically invest in competing companies at the same time. Sequoia has already invested in OpenAI and Elon Musk's xAI.
Sequoia has also previously stuck to a strategy of avoiding investments in competitors within the same sector. A representative case was in 2020, when it gave up a $21 million investment in fintech company Phoenix because it competed with Stripe.
Anthropic is expected to raise more than $25 billion in the round. Its valuation is projected to reach $350 billion. Microsoft and Nvidia will invest a combined $15 billion, while GIC and Coatue will provide $1.5 billion each.
Chi-gyu Hwang
delight@d-today.co.kr