Episode summary
Anthropic Draws Investor Offers at Over $800 Billion Value | Bloomberg Intelligence
Bloomberg Intelligence
· · Hosts: Paul Sweeney, Scarlet Fu · Guests: Mandeep Singh, Andrea Felsted, Steve Man, Herman Chan
Summary
Anthropic is attracting offers for a new funding round that could value it at about $800 billion or higher, and the guest argued that the company’s rapid ARR growth makes that level less surprising than it sounds. He said Anthropic has overtaken OpenAI on ARR and has become especially strong in coding agents, but also needs huge amounts of capital because AI players remain compute constrained and do not generate hyperscaler-like free cash flow.
On luxury, the analyst said Hermès is no longer being treated as untouchable. Sales growth slowed more than expected, tourist exposure in France proved larger than the market thought, and the shares have already rerated to a multiple below their five-year average. He also pointed to Chanel’s momentum and said Hermès may need to rethink product strategy, capacity, or even introduce more scarcity through rarer bags.
In autos, the guest said Stellantis and other global manufacturers are increasingly looking at China as a low-cost production base to compete internationally, even as the U.S. remains less receptive to China-made vehicles. On banks, the analyst said first-quarter trading was exceptionally strong, with equity trading up 25% and fixed income up 11% across the six large banks, while M&A stayed solid and AI is already helping cut headcount and lift returns.
Key takeaways
- Anthropic’s next round could price the company at about $800 billion or higher because its ARR growth has accelerated sharply, according to the tech analyst.
- The analyst said Anthropic and OpenAI still need massive capital for compute, so valuation strength does not remove funding needs.
- Hermès shares fell after first-quarter sales growth missed expectations and the market learned that more than 50% of France sales come from tourists.
- Stellantis is exploring China-linked production as global automakers try to compete on cost in Europe and emerging markets.
- The banks posted very strong trading results, with equities up 25% and fixed income up 11% across the six major firms.
- The bank analyst said AI is already reducing headcount needs, especially in consumer operations like call centers.
Notable quotes
“Anthropic has received offers from investors for a new round of funding that could value the company at about $800 billion or or higher”
“they seem to have leapfrogged OpenAI and the other frontier LLMs when it comes to coding agents specifically”
“they got more than 50% of their sales in France from tourists”
“the emerging trend of, you know, global automakers using China as a manufacturing base”
“We're talking about 25% growth in equities, 11% growth in in fixed income across the six banks”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news. You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live weekdays at 10:00 a.m. Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcast or watch us live on YouTube. All right, let's switch gears to technology. Always, always, always a lot of technology news out there and it's news with really big numbers, too.
I mean, and today's no different. Anthropic has received offers from investors for a new round of funding that could value the company at about $800 billion or or higher. Just they just the numbers keep on going up. — Company.
Yes. Yes, and if I'm, you know, putting my IPO banker hat back on from back in the day, I'd be knocking on these doors so hard saying let's rip this thing in the public market, but we'll see. Mandeep Singh joins us, global tech research lead for Bloomberg Intelligence.
He's over in London right now cracking heads over there at Bloomberg Intelligence over there whipping them into shape as well as seeing a bunch of clients. I see I can look at his calendar. I see he's actually doing a lot of real business over there, too, so we appreciate that.
Generating some revenue, hopefully. Mandeep, talk to us about Anthropic here. Any surprise here?
Well, I mean, we knew when they released that 30 billion ARR number that, you know, the growth rate is phenomenal. It's been accelerating driven by the use of their product as a coding agent. And they seem to have leapfrogged OpenAI and the other frontier LLMs when it comes to coding agents specifically.
So, right now everyone is lining up to be part of their next funding round and since OpenAI was valued at $850 billion, given, you know, Anthropic has surpassed OpenAI's ARR, I'm not surprised that we are talking about $800 billion range for Anthropic in the next funding round.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- anthropic funding
- luxury retail sales outlook
- us bank earnings
- equity trading volume
- automaker partnerships
Companies and tickers mentioned
- HESAY
- STLA
- BAC
- MS
- PNC
- Anthropic PBC
- Hermès
- Stellantis NV
- Dongfeng Motor Corp.
- Bank of America Corp.
- Morgan Stanley
- PNC Financial Services Group Inc.
- FirstBank Holding Co.
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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