Salesforce's $50M Bet on Anthropic Now Worth Billions
Salesforce's $50 million investment in Anthropic is now worth around $5 billion after a major funding round valued the AI startup at $65 billion. The cloud software company participated in subsequent funding rounds, continuing to back Anthropic as it developed its AI model, Claude.
The relationship between Salesforce and Anthropic began in 2023 when the former invested about $50 million in the latter. However, Salesforce could not invest in OpenAI, which was initially considered for investment due to Microsoft's involvement with the company. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff had previously expressed interest in investing in OpenAI but was unable to pursue that opportunity.
Salesforce's decision to invest in Anthropic has given it exposure to the rapid rise in AI companies' valuations, particularly in the generative AI market. The investment also fits into Salesforce's broader push to incorporate artificial intelligence into its software products and enterprise offerings. As a result of this partnership with Anthropic, Salesforce is able to provide AI-powered solutions to its customers.