“One anonymous source told the Financial Times that Sequoia ultimately thinks OpenAI and Anthropic will head in different directions, catering to different aspects of the AI market.”
Sequoia once walked away from a $21 million investment in Finix just because it competed with Stripe. Now they’re backing Anthropic despite already being in OpenAI and xAI. The shift happened after Roelof Botha was sidelined last fall. He passed on earlier Anthropic rounds. The stated rationale is that these companies will serve different markets. The simpler read is that Sequoia doesn’t want to miss the next $350 billion valuation. Portfolio conflicts be damned. The “pick one winner” era of VC is apparently over when the stakes are this high.