Anthropic closes $2.5 billion credit facility as Wall Street continues plunging money into AI boom

Earlier this week, Anthropic received a $2.5 billion, five-year revolving credit line to amp up its liquidity in an ever-expanding — and expensive — competition in the artificial intelligence industry.

Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI research executives, launched its Claude chatbot in March 2023.

The company closed its latest funding round in March at a $61.5 billion valuation, and the new credit facility adds to that. The company said it plans to use it to strengthen its balance sheet and invest as it scales rapidly.

Annualized revenue reached $2 billion in the first quarter, the company confirmed, more than doubling from a $1 billion rate in the prior period. Revenue chief Kate Jensen said in a recent interview with CNBC that the number of customers spending more than $100,000 annually with Anthropic jumped eightfold from a year ago.

Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Canada and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group all participated in the credit facility.

Companies are seeking more funding and liquidity than ever before as the AI arms race intensifies.

The generative AI market is poised to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade. Companies from Google and Amazon to Anthropic and Perplexity are racing to announce new products and features, especially as the race to build “AI agents” intensifies.

“This revolving credit facility provides Anthropic significant flexibility to support our continued exponential growth,” Krishna Rao, Anthropic’s finance chief, said in a statement. “The backing of these global financial institutions is a testament to the strength of our business and the resonance of our mission.”

OpenAI announced similar news in October, when CNBC reported it had received a $4 billion revolving line of credit. The influx brought the company’s total liquidity to more than $10 billion and came soon after it closed a funding round at a then-valuation of $157 billion.

JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Santander, Wells Fargo, SMBC, UBS, and HSBC all participated. OpenAI’s base credit line is $4 billion, with an option to increase it by an additional $2 billion.