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Jailed Mogul Misses $40B AI Windfall
14 Nov
Summary
- Sam Bankman-Fried forfeits nearly $40 billion from Anthropic investment.
- FTX collapse forced sale of Anthropic stake for $1.3 billion.
- Original $500 million investment could have yielded $37 billion.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced co-founder of FTX, is set to miss a substantial financial gain from his early investment in AI lab Anthropic. His investment of $500 million in 2021, made through Alameda Research, granted a nearly 14% stake when Anthropic was valued at approximately $4 billion. This stake, however, was relinquished in 2024 as part of the bankruptcy proceedings to repay FTX customers and creditors.
Anthropic is now nearing a public offering with an anticipated valuation of around $1.5 trillion. At this valuation, Alameda's original stake would have been worth approximately $37 billion. The sale of the Anthropic stake during the bankruptcy in 2024 yielded about $1.3 billion. This amount was used to satisfy claims from FTX customers and other creditors, as decided by a New York jury who sided with prosecutors in the fraud case.
Bankman-Fried's other venture investments, including a stake in Anysphere (maker of AI coding tool Cursor) acquired for $60 billion by SpaceX, and a significant investment in Robinhood, also faced liquidation. The Anysphere stake was sold for $200,000 in 2023, and Robinhood repurchased its shares for $606 million in 2023. The buyers of Anthropic's stake included ATIC Third International Investment, Jane Street, HOF Capital, the Ford Foundation, and Fidelity.
