Lambda is reportedly raising up to $4 billion before a 2027 IPO, as a $35 billion Anthropic deal swells its backlog

GPU cloud provider Lambda is raising up to $4 billion at a $14.5 billion pre-money valuation, TechCrunch reports, citing The Wall Street Journal. Coatue Management and Blackstone are leading the round, which could be Lambda's last private financing before a planned 2027 initial public offering. A letter to investors reviewed by the Journal shows that Lambda's backlog grew from $15 billion in June to $50 billion in September. Much of that increase appears to come from a single customer: Anthropic signed a $35 billion commitment with Lambda in late August. Lambda's rising valuation may therefore depend heavily on Anthropic's ability to keep paying. Lambda raised an additional $1 billion in debt the week before. Data center buildouts at companies like Lambda are largely funded by debt, and lenders are becoming more selective about whom they lend to and on what terms. The round shows that investors are still willing to back providers of scarce GPU capacity, especially those with large contracts from major AI labs. It also shows how concentrated the financial exposure of these 'neoclouds' can become when one customer accounts for most of their contracted demand.