Anthropic is a seeing a surge of demand for its $170 billion funding round and is being more selective about which type of investment vehicles can take part.

Anthropic is currently raising approximately $5 billion at a valuation of $170 billion. The AI startup is exercising selectivity regarding the types of investment vehicles permitted for this funding round. Anthropic has expressed displeasure with the common use of special purpose vehicles (SPVs) by investors. SPVs allow pooling of funds but are viewed as less desirable due to a preference for direct investor relationships. Investors are facing high fees associated with SPVs as demand for AI investments continues to surge.

Anthropic has told investors it is displeased by the prevalence of a popular kind of investment vehicle being marketed to those eager to get in on the AI boom. In its latest funding round, the AI startup is raising around $5 billion at a $170 billion valuation. It told one of its largest investors, Menlo Ventures, that the venture capital firm must use its own capital and not resort to a special purpose vehicle, or SPV, as it did in a previous funding round.

SPVs let investors pool their funds for a single, one-off deal. While they allow speed and can be marketed to a wider range of non-institutional investors, SPVs are generally seen as less desirable because most companies prefer to have a direct relationship with investors. Many friends including myself have been offered allocation into OpenAI or Anthropic SPVs this week. Minimum check sizes are $100k-$1M, with fees as high as 16%.

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