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Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy explains why Anthropic is winning (and it’s not the model)

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Why This Matters

Anthropic's rapid growth to a $47 billion revenue run rate highlights a significant shift in the AI industry, emphasizing factors beyond just model size. This underscores the importance of strategic investments and innovative approaches in driving startup success and industry valuation. For consumers and investors, it signals a new era where company value is increasingly driven by operational excellence and market positioning rather than just technological scale.

Key Takeaways

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Anthropic leaped to a $47 billion revenue run rate by May, compared to $9 billion in 2025. It’s the kind of growth that Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy says he’s never seen in 25 years of investing, not in the internet wave, not in mobile, not in the first cloud boom. Menlo led Anthropic’s $500M Series D, and Murphy has had a front-row seat as the company went from a pre-revenue, pre-launch bet to one of the most valuable startups out there.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Julie Bort talks with Murphy about backing Anthropic before anyone else would, why a great model was never the point, and what’s driving the fastest-growing startups he’s ever seen.

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.