Anthropic reached a $47 billion revenue run rate by May, a figure compared to $9 billion in 2025. This growth rate is something Menlo Ventures partner Matt Murphy has not witnessed in 25 years of investing. He has not seen similar velocity during the internet wave, the mobile boom, or the first cloud expansion. Menlo led Anthropic’s $500 million Series D and watched the company evolve from a pre-revenue bet to one of the most valuable startups globally.
The discussion highlights that a superior model was never the primary defence for the company. Instead, tools like Claude Code, MCP, and Claude Skills transformed Anthropic from a strong model into a full platform. This shift explains why smaller companies like Lovable and Legora are expanding at unprecedented speeds. The focus remains on building practical applications rather than just improving underlying technology. Founders must prioritise product integration to compete effectively in this environment.
* Google and Amazon early investment acted as a critical validation signal.
* The Mythos rollout faced backlash but represented genuine safety efforts.
* Speed of execution now outweighs model performance as the key metric.
