OpenAI, Anthropic, Anduril dominate 2025 AI valuation surge

Leading private companies are experiencing explosive growth in AI valuations, driven by a global race that’s channelling billions in venture capital into firms advancing intelligent systems, cybersecurity technologies, and next-generation productivity platforms.

At the top of the leaderboard is OpenAI, which expanded its valuation from roughly $78 billion in 2024 to $300 billion in 2025—a 284% increase. The company, which powers GPT-4o and has reshaped enterprise productivity with its ChatGPT Enterprise and API integrations, is now the most valuable private AI company globally.

OpenAI’s runaway growth is fueled by widespread adoption across education, healthcare, enterprise SaaS, and creative sectors, as well as major investments from Microsoft and leading institutional backers.

Anthropic, the AI safety-centric startup behind Claude AI, follows closely with a 234% valuation surge to $61.6 billion. The company has gained momentum through its strong positioning in AI alignment and responsible deployment, especially among governments and financial institutions prioritising trust and transparency in LLM usage.

Anduril, a defence tech innovator using AI for autonomous systems and surveillance solutions, grew its valuation by 205% to $30.5 billion. This comes amid rising global security concerns and increased military-tech modernisation programs, making it one of the most strategically critical AI players today.

Fintech startup Ramp posted a 71% valuation increase to $13 billion, reflecting growing demand for AI-driven expense management and automation solutions among startups and mid-sized enterprises.

Databricks, a staple in AI and data infrastructure, saw a more modest—but still notable—44% rise to a valuation of $62 billion. The company remains a favourite in enterprise data tooling, thanks to its unified lakehouse architecture and integration of generative AI in business workflows.

Australian design platform Canva, with a 23% uptick to $32 billion, continues to benefit from embedding AI features into creative tools for non-designers, especially as AI democratizes content production at scale.

One of the most intriguing entries is Flock Safety, which entered the top valuation list for the first time in 2025 with a debut valuation of $7.5 billion. The company’s AI-powered security systems, including license plate recognition and community policing tools, are rapidly being adopted across U.S. municipalities and private neighbourhoods.