Anthropic is setting up a $100 million fund for AI startups with the help of venture capital firm Menlo Ventures.

Called the Anthology Fund, the nine-figure cash pot will be awarded to "the next generation of AI startups," Menlo Ventures says. Each startup is eligible to receive an investment of at least $100,000, not to mention the maximum investment a company can receive. In addition, startups supported by the fund will receive access to Anthropic's AI models, $25,000 in Anthropic credits, and a certain number of credits from Menlo Ventures companies.

There are some other perks of abstract value, including "access to the Anthropic team for expertise, guidance and dedicated developer relations support," networking with other AI companies, quarterly and semi-annual meetings with Anthropic and Menlo Ventures, and even "fractional access to workplaces” to Menlo Ventures offices.

Anthropic does not stipulate that recipients must use Claude, its competitor to OpenAI's GPT models. But it says it assumes startups will want to use Claude, whose latest 3.5 version we looked at last month.