A $75 million investment has ballooned into a stake worth $7 billion. In just three years, the return has grown to more than 90 times the original outlay. With the initial public offering of artificial intelligence company Anthropic drawing near, attention is turning to the astronomical gains of its early backers.
$75 Million Grows to $7 Billion as Early Investors Hit Jackpot
Anthropic is pushing for a U.S. listing this year, and major venture capital firms and technology companies stand to book enormous paper gains, Bloomberg reported on the 22nd.
Anthropic was most recently valued at $965 billion. Some market watchers expect the figure could reach as much as $2 trillion at listing.
The standout beneficiary is Spark Capital, a U.S. venture capital firm. The firm invested $75 million in Anthropic in 2023, and its stake is now worth about $7 billion — 93 times the original investment.
Menlo Ventures also began investing in 2023, when Anthropic was still seen as a latecomer to OpenAI. Its cumulative investment exceeds $1 billion, and its stake is now valued at about $14 billion.
Sound Ventures, co-founded by actor Ashton Kutcher, invested $35 million in 2023 and later put in an additional $400 million. Its stake is now worth billions of dollars, according to reports.
Iconiq, which invested relatively late, is also expecting substantial returns. The firm has invested more than $6 billion since last year, and its stake is estimated at about $17 billion. If Anthropic lists at a $2 trillion valuation, that stake could roughly double in value.
These figures, however, represent the paper value of the holdings, not gains locked in through actual sales.
Former Google CEO Stands to Gain $20 Billion; Seven Co-Founders Become Billionaires
Among individual investors, former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt is considered one of the biggest winners.
Schmidt put tens of millions of dollars into Anthropic's Series A round in 2021 and now holds about 1% of the company, Bloomberg reported on the 20th.
Anthropic was valued at just $461 million at the time, according to market research firm PitchBook. Applying the $2 trillion target valuation for the listing, that would amount to a roughly 4,300-fold increase.
In that case, Schmidt's stake would be worth as much as $20 billion. His fortune, currently about $57.5 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, would approach $80 billion. The exact size of his investment, his precise stake and whether he sold any shares along the way have not been disclosed.
Anthropic's seven co-founders are each worth about $8 billion based on the company's recent valuation. If the listing goes through, many employees who received stock compensation are also expected to see a sharp increase in wealth.
Chasing a $2 Trillion Valuation: Will the AI Investment Boom Continue?
Anthropic plans to begin formally courting investors for the IPO as early as the week starting Nov. 9. The company is working to start trading before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, or to complete the listing by the end of the year at the latest, according to Bloomberg.
With a target valuation of up to $2 trillion, the listing could surpass the record set by SpaceX, which went public in June at a valuation of $1.77 trillion.
Money from large investment firms continues to flow in. Sequoia Capital invested in Anthropic for the first time this year, putting in a total of $3 billion. Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC has invested more than $4.5 billion since last year. Both firms are believed to have secured stakes of about 1%.
Global technology companies including Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia and Microsoft have also joined as major investors.
Still, because these companies are investing in Anthropic while also supplying the chips and cloud infrastructure it needs for AI development, concerns have been raised about a so-called circular financing structure.
As debate over a bubble in the AI industry continues, attention is focused on whether Anthropic's listing will further fuel the investment frenzy or instead test concerns that valuations have run too high.