FTX Holds Off On Selling Its Stake In AI Startup Anthropic

Anthropic has quickly emerged as a leader in the generative AI space.

Claude’s LLM is gaining traction, with integrations available within Notion, Quora, and DuckDuckGo.

Just one month ago, the startup raised $450 million from investors including Google and Spark Capital, with sources telling Reuters Anthropic’s valuation is close to $5 billion.

But on this meteoric rise, a dark spot emerged.

Amid the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, balance sheets revealed the company owned roughly $500 million worth of Anthropic stock when FTX went bankrupt.

In fact, SBF’s bet on Anthropic might just be the one that helps recover money for former customers who lost money when the company collapsed. Many analysts believe this stake is worth potentially hundreds of millions.

Perella Weinberg Partners, the specialist financial firm serving as an advisor in FTX’s bankruptcy, was looking to liquidate these shares. But that plan may be on pause — for now.

In an unexpected turn of events, FTX has paused the sale of its stake in Anthropic, according to a report from Paula Sambo, Jeremy Hill and Yueqi Yang at Bloomberg. This comes a day after FTX’s new CEO, John J Ray III, accused the firm’s former management of misappropriating and commingling of assets. Some of SBF’s and FTX’s political donations and venture capital investments may have been funded by commingled customer deposits.

It is unclear how long the sale will be delayed, as FTX, Perella, and Anthropic failed to offer comment. Amid hot venture capital and private investor interest in generative AI, secondary market investors have been willing to pay a premium to get a seat at the table at Anthropic.

The sale of FTX’s stake in Anthropic has been on the table for quite some time: Perella worked with potential investors on a comprehensive due diligence process, including examination of confidential details about FTX’s investment in Anthropic and required potential investors to sign non-disclosure agreements.