Anthropic's breakout moment suggests Claude is winning business and affecting markets

Anthropic has rolled out Claude Opus 4.6, coding tools and industry plug-ins while moving toward a large funding round and an IPO, drawing investor attention and a market reaction; the company reports that annualised revenue grew from about $1bn early last year to over $9bn by end-2025 and has guided it will exceed $30bn this year.

Anthropic has drawn fresh investor attention after recent product releases and marketing moves that coincided with a market reaction this week. The San Francisco AI lab has focused on selling its models to developers and companies rather than consumer-facing products. It released a new model, Claude Opus 4.6, upgraded coding tools and industry plug-ins, and ran Super Bowl adverts while publicly pledging not to introduce advertising into its products. The company is advancing a large funding round and taking steps toward an initial public offering this year. Key facts: - Anthropic is reported to be finalising roughly a $35bn funding round at an approximate $350bn valuation and is preparing toward an IPO this year. - The company says annualised revenue rose from about $1bn at the start of last year to more than $9bn by the end of 2025, and has guided that annualised revenue will exceed $30bn by the end of this year, according to people familiar with its finances. - Claude Code, its software engineering tool, launched a year ago and is widely cited as a developer favourite; the firm also released Claude Opus 4.6 and plug-ins aimed at law, sales, finance, marketing and customer support. - Investors said to be involved in the funding round include Nvidia, Microsoft and venture firms such as Lightspeed and Sequoia; Lightspeed previously wrote a $1bn cheque to Anthropic. - Product releases and reported partnerships, including an announced collaboration with Goldman Sachs on an AI agent, were linked with a sell-off that removed billions from public stocks in data, enterprise software, advertising and publishing. - Anthropic faces competition from OpenAI and Google; OpenAI chief Sam Altman publicly criticised Anthropic's Super Bowl adverts and described that exchange as a sideshow. Summary: Anthropic's recent product and commercial push has sharpened investor interest in enterprise-focused AI and coincided with notable market movements. The company is in the late stages of a large funding round and is taking steps toward an IPO this year; how customers, competitors and markets respond in the coming months will determine short-term effects.