Anthropic's revenue has surged to a $47 billion run rate by May 2026, up from $9 billion in 2025, growth that early investor Matt Murphy of Menlo Ventures says outpaces anything he has witnessed in 25 years of venture investing, including the internet, mobile and first cloud booms. In a TechCrunch Equity podcast episode, Murphy tells host Julie Bort that Anthropic's success is not primarily down to having the best model, but to other factors driving its rapid rise from a pre-revenue, pre-launch startup to one of the industry's most valuable companies.

Menlo Ventures led Anthropic's $500 million Series D funding round, giving Murphy a close view of the company's trajectory since he backed it before many other investors were willing to. The podcast conversation also explores what Murphy sees as the broader drivers behind the fastest-growing startups he has encountered, though the article itself offers only a brief written introduction to the 31-minute audio discussion.