Lightspeed's $2 Billion Anthropic Megadeal Cements VC Firm's AI Ambitions.

Lightspeed Venture Partners recently led a $2 billion investment in Anthropic, a rival of OpenAI, at a $60 billion valuation. This deal is part of Lightspeed's aggressive push into AI investments, with the firm also backing companies like Databricks Inc. and xAI. The AI megadeals trend has seen US AI startups raise a record $97 billion in 2024, with Lightspeed positioning itself to be a major player in this space. However, the high-stakes nature of these investments comes with risks, as seen in the challenges faced by companies like Stability AI and Mistral. [Extracted from the article]