Elon Musk attacks Anthropic as 'misanthropic and evil' after $30B funding round values AI rival

Elon Musk Accuses Anthropic AI of Being 'Misanthropic' After $30B Funding Round - Decrypt

The attack comes as more than a dozen senior researchers have departed his own lab, xAI. Elon Musk called Anthropic's AI "misanthropic and evil" on Thursday, hours after the Claude maker announced a $30 billion funding round that valued the company at $380 billion, positioning it as one of the most capitalised private companies in the world, and the most valuable AI lab outside of OpenAI. The attack came in response to Anthropic's tweet announcing its Series G raise, co-led by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC and investment firm Coatue. "Your AI hates Whites & Asians, especially Chinese, heterosexuals and men," Musk tweeted. "This is misanthropic and evil. Fix it." "Frankly, I don't think there is anything you can do to escape the inevitable irony of Anthropic ending up being Misanthropic," the billionaire added. "You were doomed to this fate when you chose your name." The Tesla CEO's attack on Anthropic lands at a difficult moment for his own AI venture, with more than a dozen senior researchers departing xAI between February 3 and 11, including co-founders Jimmy Ba and Yuhuai "Tony" Wu, who led reasoning and reported directly to Musk. Some departures were attributed to the company's pending integration with SpaceX; others said they were leaving to start new ventures. Anthropic's Series G round was co-led by D. E. Shaw Ventures, Dragoneer, Founders Fund, ICONIQ, and MGX, with participation from Sequoia Capital, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorganChase, Temasek, the Qatar Investment Authority, and dozens of other institutional investors. A portion of the round includes previously announced investments from Microsoft and NVIDIA. Anthropic said its annualised run-rate revenue has now reached $14 billion, growing more than 10x annually for three consecutive years. Claude Code alone has surpassed $2.5 billion in run-rate revenue, more than doubling since the start of 2026, with a recent analysis estimating it now authors 4% of all public GitHub commits worldwide, according to the statement. The raise trails only OpenAI's $40 billion SoftBank-led round last year, the company Musk co-founded in 2015 before stepping away from its board in 2018, citing a potential conflict of interest as Tesla expanded its own AI work. Since then, the relationship between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has curdled into open warfare. Last month, the two clashed publicly after Musk warned his followers, "Don't let your loved ones use ChatGPT," citing a post linking the chatbot to nine deaths, including five suicides. Altman fired back, pointing to reports of more than 50 deaths linked to Tesla's Autopilot and accusing Musk of hypocrisy on AI safety. Apart from the personal feud, Musk has accused OpenAI of abandoning its nonprofit mission and filed multiple lawsuits against the company in the last 2 years. Meanwhile, competition between Anthropic and OpenAI has accelerated, with the firms releasing rival, Claude Opus 4.6 and GPT-5.3 Codex, within an hour of each other, splitting benchmark leads across enterprise reasoning and agentic coding tasks. The rivalry has also turned public through Super Bowl ads and product jabs, with Anthropic mocking ChatGPT ads and OpenAI rolling out limited ad tests hours later as both race for enterprise AI dominance.

Musk labels Anthropic as 'misanthropic and evil'

Tech billionaire Elon Musk slammed Anthropic on Thursday as "misanthropic and evil," after the AI firm announced its latest round of funding. Musk, who owns a competing AI company xAI, alleged that Anthropic's AI "hates Whites & Asians, especially Chinese, heterosexuals and men." He did not point to any specific examples. "This is misanthropic and evil," he added. "Fix it. Frankly, I don't think there is anything you can do to escape the inevitable irony of Anthropic ending up being Misanthropic. You were doomed to this fate when you chose your name." His comments came in response to Anthropic's announcement Thursday that it had raised $30 billion in funding at a valuation of $380 billion. The Hill has reached out to Anthropic for comment. Musk has previously taken aim at his AI rivals, frequently feuding with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The tech mogul, who helped found OpenAI, sued Altman and the company in 2024, accusing them of abandoning the firm's founding values and manipulating him into investing in the ChatGPT maker. He left OpenAI's board in 2018 and founded his own AI firm xAI in 2023. xAI is currently in the midst of a transition, after Musk announced last week that it was merging with SpaceX. Two xAI co-founders and several employees departed the company this week, with Musk noting he had "reorganized" the firm in recent days. Anthropic, which was founded with a focus on AI safety, has at times found itself at odds with members of the Trump administration and its allies in Silicon Valley. The White House has pushed for light-touch regulation on AI, opposing state efforts to regulate the technology. Meanwhile, the AI firm behind Claude has backed some state AI regulations, most notably a California bill requiring major AI companies disclose safety information. The measure was signed into law by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in September. Shortly after, White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks accused the company of being "woke." Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei responded at the time that "Anthropic, the administration, and leaders across the political spectrum want the same thing." As AI-related groups ramp up their spending on the upcoming midterm elections, Anthropic announced Thursday that it was giving $20 million to Public First Action, a group launched last year to support efforts develop AI safeguards. It separately announced Friday that Chris Liddell, who served as deputy White House chief of staff in Trump's first administration, was joining its board of directors. Liddell was also previously the chief financial officer of Microsoft and General Motors. "Chris has spent his career at the intersection of technology, public service, and governance -- and has a track record of helping organizations get those things right when the stakes are highest," Anthropic co-founder and president Daniela Amodei said in a statement. "As AI's impact on society grows, that kind of judgement and experience is exactly what we seek on our board," she continued.

Misanthropic and evil": Musk slams Anthropic amid Big Tech stock sell-off

Elon Musk has slammed AI company Anthropic, calling its models 'misanthropic and evil'. This comes as Anthropic announced a massive funding round. Meanwhile, the AI firm faces a legal challenge in India over its name. An Indian software company claims prior use of the Anthropic name. This dispute arises as Anthropic expands its presence in India. Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, has criticised rival artificial intelligence firm Anthropic after its latest updates were linked to a sharp sell-off in the shares of enterprise software firms. He accused the company's AI models of being "misanthropic and evil". Posting on the social media platform X, Musk wrote, "Your AI hates Whites & Asians, especially Chinese, heterosexuals and men. This is misanthropic and evil. Fix it." He added, "Frankly, I don't think there is anything you can do to escape the inevitable irony of Anthropic ending up being Misanthropic. You were doomed to this fate when you chose your name. The Name of the Wind." (The Name of the Wind is a 2007 fantasy novel by Patrick Rothfuss, the first book in The Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy.) Why the comments? Musk's remarks followed Anthropic's announcement on X that it had completed a massive new private funding round, reportedly one of the largest by a technology firm in recent years. "We've raised $30B in funding at a $380B post-money valuation," Anthropic wrote. "This investment will help us deepen our research, continue to innovate in products, and ensure we have the resources to power our infrastructure expansion as we make Claude available everywhere our customers are," the company added. Musk's own AI venture, xAI, competes directly with Anthropic's Claude chatbot through its Grok platform. In recent months, competition between the two firms has intensified, especially after reports suggested that Anthropic had cut off xAI's access to its Claude models. This is not the first time Musk has taken aim at the company's branding. He previously mocked its name, saying, "Always worth remembering that fate loves irony. The most ironic outcome for a company named @AnthropicAI would be that it is the most misanthropic!" Anthropic vs Anthropic Separately, Anthropic is facing legal action from a domestic software firm which claims earlier use of the same name. According to a report by TechCrunch, India-based Anthropic Software has filed a case in a commercial court in Karnataka in January asserting that it's been operating under this name since 2017, and argued that the US firm's recent entry into India has created confusion among its clients. The Indian company is seeking official recognition of its prior use of the name, measures to prevent further confusion, and damages of Rs 10 million (around $110,000). The dispute comes as Anthropic increases its focus on India. The firm revealed plans for an Indian office last October and appointed former Microsoft India managing director Irina Ghose to head its local operations, highlighting the country's growing importance for global AI players expanding beyond north America and Europe. Anthropic Software founder and director Mohammad Ayyaz Mulla told TechCrunch that the company's goal is clarity rather than confrontation, though further legal steps would remain an option if an agreement cannot be reached.

Elon Musk criticises Anthropic, calls it misanthropic and evil: Here's why

Musk said Anthropic AI 'hates Whites & Asians, especially Chinese, heterosexuals and men.' Elon Musk has publicly criticised Anthropic, accusing the artificial intelligence startup of building AI systems that he described as 'misanthropic and evil.' His comments came shortly after the company announced it had raised $30 billion in fresh funding at a $380 billion post-money valuation. Responding to a post about the massive fundraise on X, Musk alleged that Anthropic's AI models show bias against certain groups. 'Your AI hates Whites & Asians, especially Chinese, heterosexuals and men,' Musk wrote. 'This is misanthropic and evil. Fix it.' The post quickly gained traction online, drawing more than a million views. Musk also took aim at the company's name, suggesting it carried an ironic twist. 'Frankly, I don't think there is anything you can do to escape the inevitable irony of Anthropic ending up being misanthropic,' he wrote, adding that the company was 'doomed' by its choice of name. Also read: OpenAI calls out DeepSeek for copying its model for self training: Here's what's happening Anthropic is led by CEO and co-founder Dario Amodei and is known for developing the Claude family of large language models. These systems are direct competitors to Grok, the chatbot created by Musk's AI venture xAI. The latest remarks are part of an ongoing back-and-forth between Musk and Anthropic. In January, after reports suggested Anthropic had restricted xAI's access to Claude models, Musk offered measured praise while expressing frustration. 'Not quite on programming, but it will excel in other areas. Anthropic has done something special with coding,' he wrote at the time, adding that the cutoff was 'a helpful motivator' for xAI, though 'not good for their karma.' Also read: Apple iPhone 17e vs Google Pixel 10a: Price, camera, display, battery and other leaks compared Anthropic's newly announced funding round is among the largest private technology raises ever, reportedly second only to OpenAI. Also read: Govt tightens AI rules, orders social platforms to label deepfakes and remove harmful content in 3 hrs