Anthropic Closes $30 Billion Round as Revenue Growth Outpaces OpenAI Three-to-One

Anthropic Closes $30 Billion Round as Revenue Growth Outpaces OpenAI Three-to-One

Anthropic has closed a $30 billion funding round as the AI startup races toward a potential initial public offering, with new data showing the company growing revenue at triple the pace of rival OpenAI in what may be the final months before both firms go public.

The funding comes as OpenAI nears completion of its own $100 billion round, with Nvidia in discussions to invest up to $30 billion at a pre-money valuation between $730 billion and $850 billion. Industry observers now expect both OpenAI and SpaceX to debut on public markets at or above $1 trillion market capitalizations, marking a watershed moment for artificial intelligence investment.

But the competitive dynamics between the two AI leaders are shifting rapidly. According to analysis from Epoch AI published this week, Anthropic is growing revenue at a 10x annual pace compared to OpenAI's 3.4x growth rate in early 2026. At current trajectories, Anthropic is projected to overtake OpenAI in annual recurring revenue sometime in late 2026—a timeline that has accelerated from earlier predictions of 2027.

For finance leaders evaluating AI vendors and investments, the divergence raises questions about execution models and enterprise focus. Anthropic appears to be winning deployment across core finance functions: back office automation, finance and accounting, business intelligence and data analysis are among the top use cases for its AI agents, alongside software engineering and sales automation.

The growth gap may narrow somewhat as both companies mature. The Information projects OpenAI will achieve 2.2x revenue growth in 2026, while Anthropic's pace may moderate to 4x growth or less—still nearly double OpenAI's rate. Both figures represent a deceleration from the breakneck expansion of 2025, contributing to broader market anxiety about a "SaaS apocalypse" as traditional software companies face displacement.

OpenAI's business model faces additional complexity: the company will continue paying 20% of its revenue to Microsoft through 2032 under existing agreements, a significant structural cost that investors must factor into pre-IPO valuations. Microsoft's ongoing revenue share represents a permanent drag on margins that Anthropic does not face.

The competitive pressure is visible in product velocity. This week alone, Anthropic released Sonnet 4.6 while Google launched Gemini 3.1 Pro, underscoring the rapid iteration cycles now standard in frontier AI development. For CFOs, this pace of innovation creates both opportunity and risk: early adoption of the wrong platform could mean costly migrations within 12-18 months.

As Nvidia reaps rewards from the GPU infrastructure boom, attention is shifting to which AI company will dominate the application layer where enterprises actually deploy intelligence. Anthropic's focus on "orchestration over raw intelligence"—building AI that integrates smoothly into existing enterprise workflows—may be proving more commercially viable than OpenAI's consumer-first approach.

The pre-IPO positioning matters for corporate finance teams in two ways. First, vendor selection decisions made now will be harder to reverse once these companies are public and their platforms become even more entrenched. Second, the valuations being set in these final private rounds will establish benchmarks for how public markets value AI revenue—metrics that will cascade through the entire sector.

The key question for 2026: whether Anthropic's execution advantage in enterprise AI can sustain its growth premium, or whether OpenAI's brand recognition and Microsoft partnership will reassert dominance as both companies transition to the scrutiny of public markets.