Sequoia Capital is Reportedly Joining Anthropic’s Latest Funding Round
The move challenges a long-standing VC norm of avoiding investments in direct competitors.
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Sequoia Capital is reportedly joining a massive new funding round for Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, according to the Financial Times. The move is drawing attention across Silicon Valley because it appears to challenge a long-standing venture capital norm: avoiding investments in direct competitors.
Sequoia is already a backer of Anthropic’s competitors OpenAI and xAI, making its reported participation in Anthropic’s round particularly notable. Traditionally, venture firms have preferred to concentrate capital and influence behind a single perceived category winner. This strategy is also designed to limit conflicts of interest and protect access to confidential information.
The timing adds another layer of complexity. In sworn testimony last year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that while investors were not broadly barred from backing rivals, those with ongoing access to OpenAI’s sensitive information would lose that access if they made non-passive investments in competitors—an “industry standard” safeguard.
According to the FT, the Anthropic round is being led by GIC and Coatue, each contributing $1.5 billion. Anthropic is reportedly seeking to raise $25 billion or more at a valuation of $350 billion, more than double its valuation from just four months ago. Microsoft and Nvidia have together committed up to $15 billion.
Sequoia’s relationship with Altman runs deep, dating back to his first startup, Loopt. Yet the firm has historically taken a hard line on conflicts, famously walking away from payments startup Finix in 2020 after identifying overlap with Stripe. Against that backdrop, Sequoia’s reported Anthropic investment may signal a broader recalibration in how top-tier venture firms approach competition in the AI era.
Anthropic is also said to be preparing for a potential IPO as early as this year.
