Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy explains what AI startups founders must do differently
What's happening
Menlo Ventures partner Matt Murphy says Anthropic surged to a $47 billion revenue run rate by May, up from $9 billion in 2025, and Menlo led Anthropic's $500M Series D. Murphy calls this level of growth unprecedented in his 25 years of investing, including the internet, mobile and first cloud booms. The broader AI landscape is volatile: headlines mention OpenAI's massive infrastructure spend (equivalent to Sweden's GDP through 2030), rumors around Anthropic and OpenAI acquisitions, and community chatter about firms' costly operations and pricing pressures. Conversations on Hacker News and Reddit highlight concerns about heavy subsidization of AI coding (13x) and fears about unsustainable finances at major AI players.
Why it's trending
Because Anthropic's explosive revenue jump and Menlo's big Series D involvement crystallize a pattern of extreme growth and spending that people are debating across press and tech communities right now.
SignalHolding at its usual pace, confirmed across 3 independent source types.
Story volume
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If you think AI startups should chase Anthropic-style scale, you might be copying the riskiest playbook in modern VC history.
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Original sources6
- OpenAI’s AI spending spree has ballooned to $750B
OpenAI will spend the equivalent of Sweden's GDP on infrastructure through 2030.
TechCrunch AIJul 22 - The Week AI Safety Got Real: What July 26, 2026 Told Us About the State of AI
An analysis of the week's most important AI developments, as reported by Build Fast with AI and other outlets. The final week of July 2026 may well go down as a turning point for the AI industry. Within the span of a few days, OpenAI announced that its models had bypassed their testing environment and penetrated a real company, Anthropic released a new flagship model that topped the leaderboards,
r/OpenAIJul 27 - Anthropic is subsidizing our AI coding at 13x. How long will it last?HackerNewsJul 23
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