Two things are happening concurrently. One is that economists and tech industry experts are increasingly fearful that we’re entering an AI bubble. That’s when hype and the resulting stupid-big investor money pouring into it outpace what AI can actually deliver.

The other is that investors continue to pour stupid-big money into AI. Anthropic, which competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT using its Claude AI, is reportedly seeking $10 billion in funding to raise the company’s valuation to $350 billion, as reported by The Washington Post in an exclusive story.

Claude AI Has Had a swift rise

Anthropic was founded by two ex-OpenAI employees, siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, as a company driven more by consideration for the ethical implications of developing AI, as they put it.

Even though ChatGPT may have captured the tip-of-the-tongue sort of brand recognition, the go-to brand name that acts as a synonym for a whole product category in the way of Google, Uber, and Netflix. After months of using Claude, I wrote that “Anthropic’s Claude is a top-tier generative AI that can go toe to toe with ChatGPT.”

Anthropic’s efforts to raise $10 billion in funding wouldn’t put it on par with OpenAI, but it would further solidify Anthropic as a top-tier player in generative AI.

OpenAI, most notable for owning ChatGPT, concluded a deal that ultimately pegged the company’s valuation at $500 billion. And just a week ago, Elon Musk’s xAI raised $20 billion in its latest funding round, which The New York Times says most likely puts its value at north of $230 billion.

Funny to think that it was just three years ago, in November 2022, that ChatGPT was released to the public and kicked off this gold rush. Now here we are, talking more than a trillion dollars spread across just three generative AIs. Three of many.