The race to dominate AI infrastructure has pushed global tech spending sharply higher, as enterprises rush to integrate AI into products, workflows, and decision-making systems. This surge in demand has fueled unprecedented valuations for a handful of AI startups. Now, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital is set to join Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and US-based investor Coatue in what is shaping up to be one of the largest private funding rounds in tech history.
According to a Financial Times report, Anthropic (the AI company behind the Claude chatbot) is seeking to raise as much as $25 billion at a valuation of approximately $350 billion. If completed at those levels, the round would more than double the company’s valuation in a matter of months and place Anthropic among the most valuable private firms globally.
At the center of the funding effort are GIC and Coatue, which are expected to contribute $1.5 billion each. Their participation signals strong institutional confidence in Anthropic’s long-term prospects, particularly its emphasis on AI safety, governance, and enterprise deployment. Sovereign wealth funds like GIC have increasingly moved into late-stage AI investments, viewing them as assets rather than speculative bets. For Coatue, a long-standing investor in large-scale technology platforms, the Anthropic investment aligns with its focus on infrastructure-heavy AI companies capable of absorbing massive capital injections.
Sequoia’s reported participation is particularly striking given the firm’s historical stance on conflicts within its portfolio. Traditionally, top-tier venture firms have avoided backing multiple direct competitors in the same market, preferring instead to identify and support a single category leader. Sequoia itself once exemplified this approach when it walked away from a payments startup in 2020 after determining it competed with Stripe, forfeiting its investment to avoid a conflict. As such, Sequoia’s move into backing Anthropic is notable, especially given the firm’s existing ties to OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI.
Sequoia’s involvement also carries historical weight because of its long relationship with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The firm backed Altman’s first startup, Loopt, when he was still a Stanford student, and later worked closely with him during his time as a Sequoia scout. One of Altman’s introductions led Sequoia to Stripe, now one of the most successful investments in the firm’s history. The reported deal also comes at a moment of internal transition for Sequoia itself. Late last year, the firm underwent unexpected leadership changes, with long-time global steward Roelof Botha stepping aside and Alfred Lin and Pat Grady assuming co-leadership roles.
As for Anthropic itself, it was founded half a decade ago by former OpenAI employees. And since then, the firm has rapidly positioned itself as a leading alternative in the market for large language models, with a particular focus on safety and reliability. The company last raised $13 billion in a Series F round announced in September, which valued it at $183 billion. The reported new valuation of $350 billion represents an extraordinary jump in a short period, even by AI-sector standards. And last year, Anthropic had secured commitments of up to $15 billion from Microsoft and Nvidia.
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