Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy explains why Anthropic is winning (and it’s not the model)

Anthropic’s rapid climb is drawing attention from one of its earliest backers. In a TechCrunch video report, Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy said the company’s growth stands out even among the biggest technology waves he has seen over 25 years of investing.

According to the feed summary, Anthropic reached a $47 billion revenue run rate by May, up from $9 billion in 2025. Murphy said that pace of expansion is unlike anything he has seen across the internet era, the mobile boom, or the first wave of cloud growth. Menlo Ventures led Anthropic’s $500 million Series D, giving Murphy a front-row view as the company moved from a pre-revenue startup to one of the most closely watched players in artificial intelligence.

The report centers on Murphy’s view that Anthropic’s momentum is not simply about having the best model. While the company’s technology is clearly part of the story, his comments suggest the broader appeal comes from something deeper in how the business is positioned and how customers are adopting it. The feed summary does not spell out all of those factors, but it makes clear that Murphy sees Anthropic’s rise as a business story as much as a product story.

That distinction matters in a market where AI companies are often judged by model benchmarks, release timing, and feature announcements. Murphy’s perspective, as summarized in the report, points to a more durable source of strength: the company’s ability to translate technical progress into extraordinary revenue growth. For investors and operators, that can be a more meaningful signal than product hype alone.

The scale of Anthropic’s growth also highlights how quickly the AI market is maturing. A jump from a $9 billion to a $47 billion revenue run rate in a single year, as described in the feed, would place the company in a rare category of growth even by venture-backed startup standards. Murphy’s comments underscore how unusual that trajectory looks to people who have lived through multiple tech cycles.

This article is based on a monitored public feed and summarizes a TechCrunch report on Murphy’s remarks and Menlo Ventures’ role as an investor in Anthropic. Source attribution is included below.

Source: TechCrunch - https://techcrunch.com/video/menlo-ventures-matt-murphy-explains-why-anthropic-is-winning-and-its-not-the-model/