Great news coming in - Anthropic is on the brink of clinching a funding deal between $3 billion and $5 billion. This could potentially propel the value of the renowned language model developer to a staggering $170 billion, as Bloomberg recently revealed.

In this funding marathon, Iconiq Capital takes the lead, though there's a whisper about another lead investor possibly coming on board. Throw into the mix the Qatar Investment Authority and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, GIC, with whom Anthropic is currently in conversations, and the story gets even more riveting.

Should the deal go through, it would skyrocket Anthropic's valuation to almost triple its current figure of $61.5 billion, which was established after a $3.5 billion funding splash led by Lightspeed Venture Partners in March. Also joining the financial party during last round of funding were D1 Capital Partners, Menlo Ventures, General Catalyst, Cisco Investments, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Salesforce Ventures, Jane Street, and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Even though Anthropic boasts an ethos of safety-conscious AI model development, its CEO, Dario Amodei, disclosed in a recent memo to employees, which Wired showcased, that he's not quite ecstatic about receiving funding from sovereign wealth funds tied to authoritarian regimes.

Nevertheless, to keep up with the demanding capital needs of AI model development, Anthropic finds itself at the mercy of Middle Eastern funding.

In a leaked memo, Amodei acknowledges, "Regrettably, the principle that 'No unethical person should ever benefit from our success' is a tough one to uphold in business."