Anthropic starts 2025 on a hot streak with Panasonic AI deal and $60B funding round

According to reports, Anthropic, the Amazon-backed AI startup, is close to a fresh $2 billion funding round. The AI firm also reportedly closed a deal with Panasonic to integrate its artificial intelligence models into the legacy electronics maker’s products. 

Artificial Intelligence firms had a strong year in 2024, and they look to have picked up the pace already in 2025. AI has become an umbrella that can include so many specialties and disciplines. AI Agents now operate X (formerly Twitter) accounts, can solve complex issues, and some, like Anthropic’s Claude, can browse Chrome as a human would. 

Anthropic is the latest beneficiary of the FOMO as it steals some of the shine from global leaders like OpenAI and Gemini.

Panasonic teams up with Anthropic to release AI-enhanced family wellness coaching app

Panasonic announced its partnership with Anthropic during the CES 2025 event. The app will be called Umi, and it is designed to help family members “care, coordinate, and connect” with one another. 

It is also supposed to help the family as a whole set goals like spending mealtime together or being more physically active, creating routines, and managing communal tasks. The user can preset goals via the app’s natural language voice interface.

Panasonic reportedly aims for the app’s target audience to be families with members of all ages. The company stated during its CES demo that Umi can easily support caregivers by keeping them informed of the habits of elderly family members. 

Claude will not have autonomy over recommending advice because Panasonic plans to incorporate a wide range of wellness experts to help users establish and maintain healthy habits and routines.

Umi will reportedly hit US markets later this year. Panasonic will make the app available to other members of its Panasonic Well’s Partner Collective, including Aaptiv, Precision Nutrition, SleepScore Labs, Addition Wealth, BlueApron, and Calm, so it is likely users will see its AI capabilities integrated into related products as well. 

The electronics company also plans to integrate Claude into other customer-facing systems like customer service, sales, and marketing. 

Panasonic also introduced its new “Panasonic Go” initiative, which is supposed to fast-track “AI-driven innovation” within the company. 

The firm has what some users on X have called ambitious plans, as it expects 30% of its revenue to come from “AI-driven hardware, software, and solution businesses” by 2030.

Anthropic in advanced talks to raise $2 billion 

According to a Tuesday WSJ report, the AI startup is in advanced talks to raise $2 billion in a deal that would raise its valuation to $60 billion. 

Anthropic, which was co-founded by former OpenAI executives and siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, revealed in 2023 it had secured a $500 million investment from Alphabet, which promised to invest another $1.5 billion over time.

Amazon has also now invested a total of about $8 billion into Anthropic, with the latest investment being an immediate pledge of $1.25 billion, with the remaining $2.75 billion in funding expected to arrive this year. 

Amazon has serious stakes in the AI firm. Anthropic named Amazon Web Services as its primary cloud provider. It is also using AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips to build, train, and deploy its models. This new investment means Amazon retains its minority stake in the startup. 

In November 2024, Anthropic revealed its model context protocol. It is a flagship product that allows Claude to integrate with tools like Google Maps and Google Calendar, meaning it can create an app or chatbot to take care of tasks like locating lunch spots, scheduling meetings, or even making restaurant reservations, according to Mike Barret, founder and chief strategy officer at ad agency Supernatural AI.

“Anthropic is finding ways to make their AI more useful,” Barret said. This development pushes the company closer to making large language models more than just information providers but also doers that can take actionable steps across platforms.

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