Anthropic has surpassed OpenAI as the most valuable AI startup, reaching a $96.5 billion valuation following the debut of its Opus 4 model. The milestone marks a significant shift in the competitive landscape of the artificial intelligence industry.
Anthropic announced a run rate revenue of $47 billion, raised $65 billion in a Series H round, and achieved a post-money valuation of $965 billion.
Simon Willison argues Anthropic and OpenAI have found product-market fit through enterprise coding agents. Both companies shifted to API-based enterprise pricing, and recent models cost more. Stories of Uber blowing its AI budget and Microsoft canceling Claude Code licenses suggest customers are paying high prices for genuinely useful tools, making April 2026 a new revenue inflection point.