Venture capital investment in artificial intelligence has accelerated, led by massive funding rounds for industry leaders. In late May 2026, Anthropic raised $65 billion, pushing its valuation to $965 billion and surpassing rival OpenAI. This followed OpenAI's own colossal $122 billion funding round in the first quarter, which had valued it at $852 billion.
These record-breaking deals underscore a historic concentration of capital into a few key AI players. The funds are largely aimed at securing vast computational resources for model development amid intense competition. This dynamic directly involves the companies' primary backers, with Microsoft supporting OpenAI, while Google and Amazon have invested heavily in Anthropic.