Anthropic IPO to drive blockbuster gains for Iconiq, Spark, GIC

The IPO may increase the wealth of Anthropic’s seven billionaire co-founders and make many of its employees millionaires. PHOTO: REUTERS

[NEW YORK] When Iconiq first invested in Anthropic in 2025, the artificial intelligence company was valued at US$183 billion. It was already worth more than almost every other technology startup in the world and was quickly becoming a major force in AI.

Even though Iconiq invested when the company was already highly valued, the investment is now expected to bring in huge profits as Anthropic gets ready to go public on the stock market.

Iconiq, an investment firm that has put more than US$6 billion into Anthropic, owns a stake worth about US$17 billion based on Anthropic’s latest private market valuation of US$965 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

The value of Iconiq’s investment, the biggest deal in the firm’s history, could double if Anthropic goes public at a valuation of as much as US$2 trillion, as some people expect.

Anthropic’s expected stock market listing could bring billions of dollars in profits to leading venture capital firms, technology companies and individual investors that have supported the maker of the Claude chatbot since it was founded in 2021.

The likely winners include investors who backed the company early, as well as those who invested later and benefited from its rapid growth and rising value during 2026.

Spark Capital, the only venture capital firm known to have a seat on Anthropic’s board, invested US$75 million in the company in 2023, one person said. It was the firm’s biggest investment ever.

That stake is now worth US$7 billion at Anthropic’s current valuation, the person said. Sound Ventures, a relatively little-known investment firm started by talent manager Guy Oseary and actor Ashton Kutcher, invested US$35 million in the same funding round, when Anthropic was valued at US$5 billion, another person said.

Sound Ventures has since invested US$400 million in later funding rounds, giving it a stake now worth billions of dollars, the person said. Oseary and managing partner Effie Epstein now run the firm. Kutcher stepped down earlier in 2026.

By comparison, Sequoia Capital, a well-known venture capital firm that made early investments in OpenAI, did not first invest in Anthropic until early 2026.

But the US$3 billion it has invested in the startup has given Sequoia a stake of about 1%, according to a person familiar with the matter. This could bring the firm a large profit.

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC also owns about 1% of Anthropic after investing more than US$4.5 billion in the company. Its first investment was in 2025, one person said. The person, like others who shared information, spoke anonymously because the details are not public.

In August, Anthropic formed a strategic partnership with GIC and Macquarie Asset Management to build data centres.

Anthropic, Sequoia, Iconiq, Sound Ventures and GIC declined to comment. Spark Capital did not respond to a request for comment.

The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported some details about the profits Spark could make. Anthropic is expected to file its initial public offering (IPO) paperwork publicly in the coming days. This would start the process of selling its shares on the stock market and could create an extraordinary amount of wealth. The listing could increase the wealth of its seven billionaire co-founders and make many of its thousands of employees millionaires.

The money made from the IPO could also affect the wider technology and venture capital industries. It could help investors fund more AI companies at a time when concerns are growing that the AI market may be in a bubble.

Like its main rival, OpenAI, Anthropic has raised money from many different sources to pay for expensive investments in computer chips, data centres and skilled workers. These investments help it build better AI models and support the growing use of its technology.

Some of Anthropic’s biggest suppliers, including Google owner Alphabet, Amazon and Nvidia, have invested billions of dollars in the startup.

These deals have raised concerns that money is moving between companies in ways that help support the AI boom. The deals could also bring large profits to the big technology companies.

In its early years, Anthropic mainly received money from wealthy individual investors, including former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced co-founder of FTX.

Bloomberg News has reported that Schmidt owns about 1% of Anthropic. This could make him one of the individual shareholders who earns the largest profit from the company’s growth.

In 2023, Menlo Ventures became one of the first venture capital firms to invest in Anthropic. At the time, Anthropic was seen as less likely to succeed than OpenAI and had very little revenue.

Menlo Ventures has invested more than US$1 billion in Anthropic. This includes US$500 million that it invested to lead Anthropic’s Series D funding round, the largest investment the venture firm has ever made.

Bloomberg News has reported that Menlo’s stake was worth US$14 billion based on Anthropic’s latest funding round. One person said the stake represents less than 2% of the company.

Lightspeed Venture Partners, which first invested in Anthropic during its Series D funding round and continued investing in later rounds, also owns less than 2% of the company, another person said.

The New York Times had earlier reported on Lightspeed’s stake. Other major investors in Anthropic include Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Altimeter, Coatue and Greenoaks.

Representatives for Menlo Ventures and Lightspeed declined to comment. In a June interview about Menlo’s early investments in Anthropic, partner Venky Ganesan said: “Being contrarian is how you make money.” He added: “That was a lonely time; almost nobody wanted to invest.” BLOOMBERG