What is Anthropic?
Anthropic is an AI safety company that created Claude, one of the leading AI assistants. Founded by former OpenAI researchers, it focuses on developing AI systems that are safe, beneficial, and understandable. As of 2025, Anthropic is a major competitor to OpenAI.
Safety First
Anthropic's core focus is making AI safe. They believe AI could be transformative and potentially dangerous, so getting safety right is crucial.
History
2021: Founding
Founded by Dario Amodei (CEO) and Daniela Amodei (President), along with other former OpenAI employees. They left over disagreements about safety priorities.
2022-2023: Claude Launch
Released Claude, raised billions in funding. Google invested $300M, then $2B more. Amazon invested up to $4B.
2024: Claude 3
Released Claude 3 family (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku). Claude 3 Opus matched or exceeded GPT-4 on many benchmarks.
2025: Claude 4 Era
Released Claude 4 (Opus 4, Sonnet 4), later updated to Opus 4.5 and Sonnet 4.5. Opus 4.5 reportedly outperformed human job candidates in internal engineering tests. Added mobile voice mode, built-in web search, and enterprise agent capabilities.
Products (2025)
- Claude — Conversational AI assistant (major ChatGPT competitor)
- Claude 4 Models — Opus 4.5 (most capable), Sonnet 4.5 (balanced), Haiku (fast)
- Claude API — For developers to build applications
- Claude for Enterprise — Business-focused offering with Agent Skills
- Claude Code — Web-based coding assistant with GitHub integration
What Makes Anthropic Different
Constitutional AI
Their approach to training AI with explicit principles. The AI is trained to follow a "constitution" of rules about helpfulness, harmlessness, and honesty.
Safety Research
Heavy focus on understanding how AI models work internally, making them more interpretable and predictable.
Agentic Capabilities
Claude can now manage multi-step processes autonomously—version control, API integration, debugging, and code fixes—with minimal human supervision.
Claude 4 vs. GPT-5
- Coding — Both excel, with Opus 4.5 matching human engineers in tests
- Reasoning — Claude 3.7 Sonnet introduced hybrid reasoning approach
- Voice — Mobile voice mode for hands-free interaction
- Web Search — Built-in real-time information access
- Integration — Microsoft integrated Claude into Microsoft 365 Copilot
Funding
- Google — $2+ billion
- Amazon — $4+ billion (primary cloud partner)
- Valuation — $60+ billion (2025)
Summary
- • Anthropic created Claude, now on version 4 (Opus 4.5)
- • Founded by former OpenAI researchers in 2021
- • Opus 4.5 outperformed human engineers in internal tests
- • Major backing from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft integration