Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI system, grew 80 times in annualized revenue and usage during the first quarter of 2026. That’s not a typo. Bessemer Venture Partners partner Byron Deeter flagged the figure as evidence of what he called a “once-in-a-generation” company.
To put that in context, the company’s own internal projections anticipated roughly 10x growth. Anthropic blew past that by a factor of eight. The result: an estimated run-rate revenue of $47 billion by mid-May 2026, a staggering leap from prior annualized figures that had been tracking around $14 billion and then $30 billion in earlier periods.
A $65 billion fundraise and a near-trillion-dollar valuation
On May 28, 2026, Anthropic closed a $65 billion Series H funding round. The post-money valuation landed at $965 billion, placing the company within striking distance of the trillion-dollar club that was, until recently, reserved for a handful of legacy tech giants.
The round attracted a who’s who of venture capital. Altimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia, and Bessemer all added to their positions. Bessemer has backed Anthropic since at least its Series D, meaning the firm has had a front-row seat to this growth curve for some time.
