Exclusive: Anthropic Eyes $5 Billion Mega-Deal with Middle Eastern Investors

Silicon Valley's AI darling Anthropic is courting petrodollars in what could be one of 2025's biggest tech fundraises.

The generative AI arms race just got hotter—and oil-rich sovereign wealth funds are loading the money cannon. Anthropic's potential $5 billion haul would dwarf most Series Z rounds (if we're still calling them that when the numbers get this ridiculous).

Middle Eastern money meets machine learning

While VCs scramble to rebalance their crypto-heavy portfolios, Gulf states are writing checks that make Sand Hill Road look like a lemonade stand. The move signals growing geopolitical stakes in foundational AI models—and how quickly the 'next big thing' becomes just another asset class for hydrocarbon billionaires.

One banker close to the deal joked: 'At least this time they're buying algorithms instead of soccer teams.'

Anthropic is eyeing a $150 billion valuation

The artificial intelligence startup, Anthropic, is in early discussions to raise fresh funding that WOULD more than double its valuation to over $150 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

The potential valuation hike from its current $61.5 billion would mark a significant milestone for the four-year-old company’s goal of keeping pace with rivals like OpenAI and xAI in the generative AI industry.

The company has attracted early interest from investors who are reportedly willing to back the company at this inflated valuation. The Financial Times reported that Anthropic aims to raise at least $3 billion, with the final amount potentially reaching up to $5 billion.

Among the interested parties is MGX, Abu Dhabi’s large-scale AI investment fund. Anthropic has held preliminary talks with several Middle Eastern investors, according to two sources. This follows a prior deal where another Abu Dhabi fund, linked to MGX, bought nearly $500 million worth of shares from the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX.

In an internal memo first reported by Wired, CEO Dario Amodei raised ethical concerns about taking money from entities linked to authoritarian regimes.

“Unfortunately, I think ‘no bad person should ever benefit from our success’ is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on,” Amodei reportedly wrote. Anthropic has previously avoided direct fundraising from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, but its recent talks signal a potential shift in strategy.

Anthropic is right behind OpenAI in AI talent and revenue

Anthropic is among the top contenders in the generative AI industry to develop cutting-edge AI models capable of generating text, code, and images. It competes closely with OpenAI, Elon Musk’s xAI, and Big Tech giants such as Google and Meta.

While OpenAI currently leads in consumer adoption, with over 500 million weekly users on its ChatGPT platform, the Claude chatbot has been making waves, especially in enterprise applications like code generation.

Backed by tech industry leaders like Amazon and Google, Anthropic has seen its annualized recurring revenue grow rapidly from $1 billion at the start of 2025 to over $4 billion. The majority of this revenue, roughly 80% of it, comes from enterprise subscriptions.

Amazon, which has already pledged up to $8 billion in investment, is reportedly in talks to increase its stake further. The MOVE would help Amazon maintain a significant share as the AI startup scales.

Despite strong revenue growth, neither Anthropic nor OpenAI is profitable. The companies burn through massive amounts of capital to train and run their large language models, much of which is spent on computing power and talent acquisition.

Meanwhile, OpenAI is preparing to release GPT-5, which will be its most advanced model to date, in coming weeks. The company is also in the middle of raising tens of billions of dollars, with SoftBank leading the investment effort.

MGX, the Abu Dhabi-based fund reportedly in talks with Anthropic, already has ties with OpenAI, including co-investment in the “Stargate” data center project.

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