Anthropic and Menlo Ventures launch $100 million AI fund to rival OpenAI

Anthropic and Menlo Ventures launched a $100 million fund to support emerging AI startups. The Anthology Fund will back entrepreneurs who use Anthropic’s large language models (LLMs), the companies said on Wednesday. Menlo will provide the money to invest in the startups.

Also read: Anthropic CEO says cost to train AI to rise to $100B in three years

Anthropic said it will give startups $25,000 in credits to access its LLMs, but it won’t take an equity stake. The company will also reportedly provide coaching, quarterly meetings, and other resources. Anthropic and Menlo did not say how much each startup would get or how the $100 million would be distributed.

Anthropic, Menlo look to Apple’s iFund for inspiration

According to Daniela Amodei, co-founder and president of Anthropic, the Anthology Fund is targeting founders developing new ideas in things like AI infrastructure, healthcare, consumer products, and safety. In a statement , she said the startups must use AI “to enhance human capabilities and productivity”.

Menlo Ventures is one of the largest investors in Anthropic, alongside Amazon, which put $4 billion into the San Francisco-based outfit. Matt Murphy, a partner at the venture firm, said the Anthology Fund is inspired by a similar partnership between Apple and Kleiner Perkins in 2008.

That deal resulted in the launch of iFund, a $100 million initiative to fund developers building on Apple’s mobile platforms. By 2010, the iFund had doubled to $200 million, spurred by developments in the iPhone market. Apple launched the iPhone a year before starting iFund. As reported by CNBC, Murphy said:

“That was wildly successful — it really gave Apple a lens into a whole set of early developers, and what they need to be more attentive to.”

He added that the iFund “gave developers a direct lens into some of the things that Apple was thinking about selling.” Murphy, previously a partner at Kleiner Perkins, sees “a lot of parallels” between the Anthropic-Menlo Ventures joint fund and the iFund.

“By combining Menlo’s company-building experience with Anthropic’s cutting-edge AI technology, we are positioned to identify and partner with the most promising entrepreneurs shaping the future of AI,” he added in a statement.

The Anthology Fund will compete directly with OpenAI’s Startup Fund. According to OpenAI’s  website , the fund is “investing $175 million to help AI companies have a profound, positive impact on the world.”