Eric Schmidt's 1% Anthropic stake could be worth $20 billion
What's the story
Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, owns 1% of Anthropic, a leading new company that develops artificial intelligence (AI). He bought his stake during the company's Series A funding round, an early stage of raising money from investors. As Anthropic prepares for a possible initial public offering (IPO), Schmidt could make one of the biggest personal gains from the sale of its shares to the public. According to PitchBook data, he first invested when Anthropic was worth $461 million.
Effect on company value
How much the founders and Schmidt could gain
Anthropic's co-founders are already billionaires. Each is worth $8 billion, based on the company's most recent funding round.
At a recent meeting with investors, people discussed valuing Anthropic at about $1.5 trillion. This was lower than earlier expectations of around $2 trillion.
Even if Anthropic is valued at its most recent estimated value of $965 billion, Schmidt's stake would add nearly $10 billion to his existing fortune of $57.5 billion, according to Bloomberg's wealth index.
Investment strategy
Schmidt's investments and focus on AI
For the past 15 years, Schmidt has invested heavily in technology companies through several investment groups, including TomorrowVentures, Innovation Endeavors, and his family investment office, Hillspire.
His early investments focused on consumer internet businesses, software, and financial technology. More recently, artificial intelligence has become a major focus. He has invested in Mistral AI, Reflection AI, World Labs, and Anthropic.
If Anthropic's shares are first sold to the public at a company value of $2 trillion, Schmidt's investment would perform better than Innovation Endeavors' early investment in Uber Technologies Inc.
IPO details
When Anthropic plans to go public and who has invested
Anthropic plans to begin promoting its initial public offering (IPO) as early as the week of November 9.
The company is expected to sell shares to the public before the US Thanksgiving holiday and no later than the end of the year.
Major investors include Alphabet, Amazon, NVIDIA, and Microsoft Corp. Each has invested billions of dollars in Anthropic, the company that makes the Claude chatbot.