Dario Amodei Stubborn Focus Pays Off: Anthropic Surpasses OpenAI with $965 Billion Valuation

Dario Amodei, Anthropic CEO, has long been viewed as stubborn relentless about safety controls, quick to ban users, and unwilling to compromise on compliance. But that single-minded focus has now placed Anthropic above OpenAI as the world most valuable private AI company.

Anthropic closed a $65 billion Series H funding round last Friday, bringing its post-money valuation to $965 billion, surpassing OpenAI roughly $852 billion valuation, according to 36Kr.

The revenue numbers tell an equally striking story. Anthropic annualized revenue grew from approximately $1 billion in early 2025 to $47 billion by May 2026. OpenAI comparable figure stands at around $30 billion, giving Anthropic a roughly 35 percent lead. If the company hits its $10.9 billion quarterly revenue target, it could turn profitable this quarter.

The primary growth engine is Claude Code, launched in May 2025. Within three months it reached $500 million in annualized revenue, climbing to $2.5 billion by February 2026. In enterprise AI coding, Anthropic market share rose from 42 percent in June 2025 to 54 percent by year-end, while OpenAI held only 21 percent.

In the broader enterprise large-model procurement market, Anthropic share jumped from 24 percent in 2024 to 40 percent, while OpenAI declined from 50 percent in 2023 to 27 percent. The shift reflects a fundamental divergence in strategy: Anthropic doubled down on enterprise, avoiding the consumer AI battlefield where OpenAI and Google compete intensely.

Amodei strategy commit fully to coding and dominate the enterprise market is now delivering measurable results. OpenAI meanwhile is pivoting toward becoming a purer intelligence lab.

The competitive landscape is shifting. The next quarters will determine whether Anthropic enterprise-first bet remains sustainable as OpenAI repositions and other players enter the coding market.