Anthropic has a concealed to its success, says one of its earliest investors: the aura of curly-haired CEO Dario Amodei.
Speaking at Tech Insider: Growth Mode, sponsored by Fidelity, in San Francisco on Wednesday, Menlo Ventures partner Matt Murphy stated that Amodei can charm AI researchers alongside his intellect and mission-driven attitude.
Amodei may not have fairly the identical category of energy as Silicon Valley's expert salesman, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Still, Amodei's brainiac vibes chime fine alongside AI researchers, Murphy said.
Murphy stated that Anthropic has been capable to outperform since of Amodei's "commitment to culture" and being capable to bring on researchers who desire to activity for him.
"He's akin them, and he's among the best," Murphy told Business Insider's Ben Bergman.
Amodei was an first OpenAI investigator who remaining in 2020 complete safety concerns to cofound Anthropic. Since then, Anthropic has rotate into the largest AI startup by evaluation — it could soon go community at a $2 trillion valuation.
Menlo Ventures archetypal invested in Anthropic in 2023, whenever it was appreciated at $4.1 billion, and has invested in all follow-on round.
Murphy stated that Amodei wins group complete by doing spontaneous things, akin popping in unannounced on Zoom calls. In one capitalist call alongside Anthropic cofounder Tom Brown, that's exactly what happened, Murphy said.
"Then all of a sudden, Dario pops in. It was fair like, 'Oh' — and the energy went way up," he said.
"There's fair a charm concerning him, perchance akin a boyish charm, particularly rear then. He's fair a extremely inquisitive person, incredibly smart."
Overall, Murphy remains optimistic concerning Anthropic, notwithstanding its elevated valuation, financial losses, the danger of Chinese open-source models, and concerns concerning AI safety.
"If I could buy more, I would," he stated of Anthropic's stock.
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Charles Rollet is Business Insider's tech equal in San Francisco, anywhere he focuses on breaking important news concerning the AI industry. In 2025, he led an inquiry which revealed that Scale AI had inadvertently exposed confidential data concerning its workers and clients. In 2026, he was the archetypal to interrupt the news that Meta had halted a arguable keystroke tracking program.Prior to joining BI, Charles worked at TechCrunch covering startups and VC in San Francisco. Before that, he was based in Southeast Asia for a decade, anywhere his activity won a Gerald Loeb award and was nominated for a Society of Publishers in Asia award. His reporting on the surveillance industry led to US individual entitlements sanctions on five Chinese safety camera manufacturers.Charles is particularly curious in how frontier AI models are built and trained. He has a master's flat in endeavor reporting from NYU and a bachelor's flat in former from Northwestern.You can communication Charles securely on Signal at charlesrollet.12 or +1-628-282-2811. Charles keeps sources anonymous. Please use a non-work equipment to attain out.
