Elon Musk Blasts xAI Rival Anthropic As 'Misanthropic And Evil' As The Startup Closes $30 Billion Funding Round, Asks Claude Parent To 'Fix' Itself

On Thursday, Elon Musk slammed AI startup Anthropic for alleged bias and misanthropy after the company announced a $30 billion funding round, pushing its valuation to $380 billion.

Anthropic Surges To $380 Billion Valuation

The $380 billion post-money valuation marks more than a twofold increase from September.

In a blog post, Anthropic reported a run-rate revenue of $14 billion, growing more than tenfold annually over the past three years.

The latest funding round includes previously announced investments from tech giants Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA).

The company is reportedly targeting a 2026 IPO.

Musk Criticizes Anthropic Publicly

Musk, CEO of xAI, took to X and attacked Anthropic, calling the startup "misanthropic and evil."

He added, "Frankly, I don't think there is anything you can do to escape the inevitable irony of Anthropic ending up being Misanthropic. You were doomed to this fate when you chose your name."

The comments come amid internal shakeups at Musk's own AI venture, with two co-founders departing this week, leaving half of the original team gone.

Musk later said that the restructuring was meant "to improve speed of execution" and that his company continues to hire aggressively.

Anthropic did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comments.

Enterprise Market Shakeup

In December 2025, venture capital firm Menlo Ventures said Anthropic has overtaken OpenAI as a leader in enterprise AI, now capturing roughly 40% of enterprise LLM spending, up from 24% in 2024.

OpenAI, meanwhile, reported annualized revenue of more than $20 billion in 2025, but its enterprise share fell from 50% in 2023 to around 25–27% in 2025, as per Menlo.

Diverging Approaches To AI Governance

Anthropic this week also donated $20 million to Public First Action, a bipartisan organization promoting AI governance and education. This contrasts with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's preference for a single, federal regulatory framework.

OpenAI is also reportedly in discussions with investors for a new funding round that could be finalized at approximately $100 billion.

Earlier this month, Anthropic also aired Super Bowl commercials that appeared to aim for OpenAI's decision to experiment with ads in ChatGPT.

This prompted a response from Altman, who accused Anthropic of being "deceptive" in the ads.

Photo Courtesy: PatrickAssale on Shutterstock.com

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.