Anthropic and one of its largest investors are taking a page from apple script.
The artificial intelligence startup and Menlo Ventures will launch a $100 million fund on Wednesday to support early-stage startups and let them use the artificial intelligence company’s technology. Menlo will invest cash in the startup, while Anthropic will provide founders with a $25,000 credit for use of its large-scale language model.
The launch of the Anthology Fund reflects a partnership between Apple and venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. The joint venture is called fund, launched in 2008, one year after the iPhone launched, to support developers on Apple’s mobile platforms. In 2008, its initial funding was US$100 million, which doubled to US$200 million two years later.
Matt Murphy, a partner at Menlo Ventures and a former partner at Kleiner Perkins, said the iFund was the inspiration for the launch.
“It was very successful — it really gave Apple a sense of the early developers as a whole and what they needed to pay more attention to,” Murphy told CNBC. “It also gives developers a first-hand look at some of the things Apple is doing. There are a lot of similarities here.
The biggest difference, Murphy said, is that artificial intelligence is developing faster than the iPhone. He said the current wave of artificial intelligence is happening 10 to 100 times faster than “the biggest waves of innovation we’ve seen before.”
As investors flock to the hottest deals, venture capital firms are now looking for ways to attract offers from artificial intelligence startups. According to Crunchbase data, the amount of financing for artificial intelligence startups in the second quarter more than doubled from the first quarter, reaching $24 billion.
Anthropic is offering coaching, quarterly gatherings and other resources, including a hotline directly to the company, or what Murphy calls a “bat call.”
But Anthropic won’t write any equity checks or receive a financial stake in the startup. Daniela Amodei, who co-founded Anthropic with her brother Dario after leaving rival OpenAI, said the company wanted to create a feedback loop. The more Anthropic works with developers, the more it can improve its products.
“Daniela Amodei told CNBC, “In the artificial intelligence space, startup costs are very expensive, which may actually prevent you from starting a company. Our goal is to contribute to this component.” We are providing points and some guidance on how to get started in the ecosystem.
Anthropic could also benefit from the next generation of ambitious AI companies building on its underlying infrastructure. Anthropic competes directly with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
OpenAI has its own venture capital fund OpenAI Startup Fund, which website Said it was “investing $175 million to help artificial intelligence companies have a profound, positive impact on the world.”
Murphy distinguished the anthology funds, saying, “It’s hard to align with another strategic partner.”
“For Anthropic, this is a unique opportunity for us and a group of entrepreneurs that we will be funding over the next few years to get involved and build a great community to learn together and do some of the most disruptive things. , innovative things and really creating great things,” Murphy said.
