Anthropic reaches $965 billion valuation after $65 billion funding round, with analyst calling it 'just the tip of the sphere' for AI investment

Anthropic secured $65 billion in funding on Thursday, bringing its valuation to $965 billion, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives speaking to CNBC.

Ives identified data layer companies—including Snowflake, Datadog, and InnoData—as the next focus for investor attention, arguing that "the second, third, fourth derivative" of AI spending is shifting to these firms.

SpaceX's IPO is expected on June 12 with a targeting valuation of $1.75 trillion on the Nasdaq, while OpenAI and Anthropic have announced intentions to go public later in 2026; all three companies are yet to generate annual profits, though Anthropic is expected to post its first-ever profitable quarter in its upcoming earnings.

Some analysts, including John Blank of Zacks, have compared the wave of mega-IPOs to the late-1990s dot-com bubble, though Ives maintains the market more closely resembles 1997 in terms of bubble risk.