Eric Schmidt Could Gain 20 Billion Dollars From Anthropic IPO

Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, could see the value of his early investment in Anthropic rise to as much as $20 billion. The artificial intelligence company is preparing for a possible stock market listing, known as an initial public offering (IPO), in the United States. Bloomberg reported on October 20, 2026, that Schmidt owns about 1% of Anthropic, the company that makes Claude. Investors have discussed a possible value of between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion for the company when it goes public.

Schmidt invested tens of millions of dollars in Anthropic's Series A funding round in 2021, when the company was still a young startup. The Times of India, citing Bloomberg, reported that it is not clear whether Schmidt has sold any of his original shares. So, the estimated value of his investment depends on how much of the company he still owns and how much Anthropic is worth when it goes public.

Figures published by Finance BigGo put Anthropic's value at about $461 million during its 2021 Series A funding round. In its most recent funding round, the company's value was $965 billion. If Schmidt had owned 1% of Anthropic at those two values, his shares would have been worth about $4.61 million and $9.65 billion, respectively. Their value could reach $20 billion if the company reaches the highest estimated value in its IPO.

These estimates show how much Schmidt could gain from investing in Anthropic at an early stage. However, the company's final IPO value and the amount of the company Schmidt still owns are not yet known.

Anthropic was founded by Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei and a group of researchers who left OpenAI. In May 2021, the company raised $124 million in its Series A funding round. Jaan Tallinn, a co-founder of Skype, led the investment, along with Schmidt and Dustin Moskovitz, a co-founder of Facebook.

Google became involved later. In late 2022, Google reportedly invested about $300 million in Anthropic in exchange for roughly 10% of the company. This put Anthropic's value at around $3 billion at the time. Amazon and Google have since become major investors and cloud computing providers for Anthropic. Their cloud services help the company develop and run its Claude AI models.

Schmidt led Google from 2001 to 2011 and served as Alphabet's executive chairman until 2018. Since leaving the company's leadership, he has invested in hundreds of startups, including AI companies such as Mistral AI, Reflection AI and World Labs.

Anthropic's possible stock market listing comes after an earlier investor sold its shares. FTX and Alameda Research invested $500 million in Anthropic for about an 8% stake in the company. After FTX collapsed, the team managing its bankruptcy sold all those shares in 2024 for about $1.3 billion to repay creditors.

Bloomberg reported that Anthropic privately submitted draft IPO documents to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on June 1. According to the Times of India, the company could make a public filing as early as October 26, with its stock market listing expected in mid-November. Finance BigGo separately reported that Anthropic aims to begin promoting the share sale to investors during the week that includes November 9 and finish the listing before Thanksgiving.

Anthropic's growth and profits are important to investors as they decide how much the company might be worth. At an investor meeting in the week before October 20, the company said its revenue for the third quarter rose 45% from the previous quarter to $16.8 billion. It also said it had made a profit after certain items were adjusted. The company's total revenue for 2025 was nearly $4.6 billion.

Despite these results, some investors discussed a value closer to $1.5 trillion instead of the roughly $2 trillion expected earlier, according to Bloomberg. One concern was that the company's growth might slow after its revenue more than doubled between the first and second quarters of 2026.

Finance BigGo cited the Bloomberg Billionaires Index to estimate Schmidt's total wealth at about $57.5 billion. If Anthropic reaches a value of $2 trillion and Schmidt still owns a full 1% stake, his shares would be worth about $20 billion. This could bring his total wealth close to $80 billion. However, Anthropic's final IPO value and share price have not yet been decided.