{"id":415903,"date":"2026-01-19T01:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T01:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/415903\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T01:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T01:00:07","slug":"sequoia-to-invest-in-anthropic-breaking-vc-taboo-on-backing-rivals-ft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/415903\/","title":{"rendered":"Sequoia to invest in Anthropic, breaking VC taboo on backing rivals: FT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sequoia Capital is reportedly joining a blockbuster funding round for Anthropic, the AI startup behind Claude, according to the Financial Times<\/a>. It\u2019s a move sure to turn heads in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

Why? Because venture capital firms have historically avoided backing competing companies in the same sector, preferring to place their bets on a single winner. Yet here\u2019s Sequoia, already invested in both OpenAI and Elon Musk\u2019s xAI, now throwing its weight behind Anthropic, too.<\/p>\n

The timing is particularly surprising given what OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said under oath last year. As part of OpenAI\u2019s defense against Musk\u2019s lawsuit, Altman addressed rumors about restrictions in OpenAI\u2019s 2024 funding round. While he denied that OpenAI investors were broadly prohibited from backing rivals, he did acknowledge that investors with ongoing access to OpenAI\u2019s confidential information were told that access would be terminated \u201cif they made non-passive investments in OpenAI\u2019s competitors.\u201d Altman called this \u201cindustry standard\u201d protection (which it is) against misuse of competitively-sensitive information.<\/p>\n

According to the FT, Sequoia is joining a funding round led by Singapore\u2019s GIC and U.S. investor Coatue, which are each contributing $1.5 billion. Anthropic is aiming to raise $25 billion or more at a $350 billion valuation \u2014 more than double its $170 billion valuation from just four months ago. The WSJ and Bloomberg had earlier reported the round at $10 billion. Microsoft and Nvidia have committed up to $15 billion combined, with VCs and other investors said to be contributing another $10 billion or more.<\/p>\n

The Sequoia connection with Altman runs deep. When Altman dropped out of Stanford to start Loopt, Sequoia backed him. He later became a \u201cscout\u201d for Sequoia, introducing the firm to Stripe, which became one of the firm\u2019s most valuable portfolio companies. Sequoia\u2019s new co-leader Alfred Lin and Altman also appear comparatively close. Lin has interviewed Altman numerous times at Sequoia events, and when Altman was briefly ousted from OpenAI in November 2023, Lin publicly said he\u2019d eagerly back Altman\u2019s \u201cnext world-changing company.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Sequoia\u2019s investment in xAI might seem to have already contradicted the traditional VC approach of picking winners, that bet is widely viewed as less about backing an OpenAI competitor and more about deepening the firm\u2019s extensive ties to Elon Musk. Sequoia invested in X when Musk bought Twitter and rebranded it, is an investor in SpaceX and The Boring Company, and is a major backer of Neuralink, Musk\u2019s brain-computer interface company. Former longtime Sequoia leader Michael Moritz was even an early investor in Musk\u2019s X.com, which became part of PayPal.<\/p>\n

Sequoia\u2019s apparent reversal on portfolio conflicts is especially glaring given its historical stance. As we reported in 2020, the firm took the extraordinary step of walking away from its investment in payments company Finix after determining the startup competed with Stripe. Sequoia forfeited its $21 million investment<\/a>, letting Finix keep the money while giving up its board seat, information rights, and shares, marking the first time in the firm\u2019s history it had severed ties with a newly funded company over a conflict of interest. (Sequoia had led Finix\u2019s $35 million Series B round just months earlier.)<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The reported Anthropic investment comes after dramatic leadership changes at Sequoia, where the firm\u2019s global steward, Roelof Botha, was pushed out in a surprise vote this fall just days after sitting down<\/a> with this editor at TechCrunch Disrupt, with Lin and Pat Grady \u2014 who\u2019d led that Finix deal \u2014 taking over.<\/p>\n

Anthropic is reportedly preparing for an IPO that could come as soon as this year. We\u2019ve reached out to Sequoia Capital for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sequoia Capital is reportedly joining a blockbuster funding round for Anthropic, the AI startup behind Claude, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[184,28,11,1283,7047,40565],"class_list":{"0":"post-415903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-anthropic","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-elon-musk","11":"tag-openai","12":"tag-sam-altman","13":"tag-sequoia-capital"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}