Anthropic raises $65 billion days after music publishers drop a key claim

Anthropic raised $65 billion on May 28, 2026, at a $965 billion post-money valuation, pushing the Claude maker ahead of OpenAI in the AI funding race. The round landed the same week music publishers dropped a key copyright claim against the company. Its valuation has more than doubled since February.

The money is piling up faster than the court fights are resolving.

The win that came right before the cash

Days before the round, Concord, Universal Music, and ABKCO walked back their vicarious infringement claim, the charge that held Anthropic responsible for what users do with Claude. Judge Eumi K. Lee approved the voluntary dismissal of that claim. The retreat traces to the Supreme Court’s pro-Cox ruling, which made these secondary-liability cases much harder to win. Digital Music News reported the funding days later.

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Anthropic has refused to take reasonable steps to prevent the widespread infringement by users of its AI models.

What did not go away is bigger. The core claim that Anthropic copied protected lyrics to train Claude is still live, and a contributory claim over torrenting still names co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann.

What it means for songwriters

The dropped claim was about platform liability. The one still standing is about whether songwriters and publishers get paid for the work that built the model. That’s the fight that sets compensation, and a $65 billion war chest means Anthropic can afford to wait it out.