Spark Capital's $75 Million Anthropic Bet Now Worth $7 Billion

An investment of $75 million has grown to be worth $7 billion. In just three years, its value has increased to more than 90 times the original amount. As artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic gets closer to selling its shares to the public for the first time, people are paying attention to how much money its early investors could make.

$75 Million Becomes $7 Billion as Early Investors See Huge Gains

Anthropic is working toward listing its shares on a U.S. stock exchange this year. Large investment firms and technology companies could see huge increases in the value of their investments, Bloomberg reported on October 22.

Anthropic was most recently valued at $965 billion. Some people who follow the market believe its value could reach as much as $2 trillion when its shares begin trading publicly.

One of the biggest winners is Spark Capital, a U.S. firm that invests in growing companies. Spark Capital invested $75 million in Anthropic in 2023. Its share of the company is now worth about $7 billion, or 93 times what it originally invested.

Menlo Ventures also started investing in Anthropic in 2023, when the company was still seen as being behind its competitor OpenAI. Menlo Ventures has invested more than $1 billion in total. Its share of Anthropic is now worth about $14 billion.

Sound Ventures, an investment firm co-founded by actor Ashton Kutcher, invested $35 million in 2023. It later invested another $400 million. According to reports, its share of Anthropic is now worth billions of dollars.

Iconiq started investing later than some other firms, but it also expects to make large gains. Since last year, Iconiq has invested more than $6 billion in Anthropic. Its share of the company is now estimated to be worth about $17 billion. If Anthropic goes public with a value of $2 trillion, Iconiq's investment could become worth roughly twice as much.

However, these amounts show what the investments are worth on paper. They are not profits that investors have actually received by selling their shares.

Former Google CEO Could Gain $20 Billion, While Seven Founders Become Billionaires

Among people who invested their own money, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is expected to be one of the biggest winners.

Schmidt invested tens of millions of dollars in Anthropic's Series A funding round in 2021. This was an early stage when the company was raising money from investors. He now owns about 1% of Anthropic, Bloomberg reported on October 20.

At the time of his investment, Anthropic was worth just $461 million, according to market research company PitchBook. If Anthropic reaches its target value of $2 trillion when it goes public, the company's value will have grown by about 4,300 times.

At that value, Schmidt's share of Anthropic could be worth as much as $20 billion. His total wealth, currently estimated at about $57.5 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, could rise to nearly $80 billion. However, the exact amount he invested, the precise percentage of Anthropic he owns, and whether he has sold any shares since investing have not been made public.

Anthropic's seven co-founders are each worth about $8 billion based on the company's recent value. If Anthropic goes public as planned, many employees who received company shares as part of their pay are also expected to become much wealthier.

Anthropic Aims for $2 Trillion: Will the Rush to Invest in AI Continue?

Anthropic plans to begin officially meeting with potential investors for its initial public offering (IPO), when a company first sells shares to the public, as early as the week beginning November 9. According to Bloomberg, the company wants its shares to start trading before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. If that does not happen, it hopes to complete the listing by the end of the year at the latest.

Anthropic is aiming for a company value of up to $2 trillion. If it reaches that amount, it could break the record set by SpaceX, which went public in June with a value of $1.77 trillion.

Large investment firms are continuing to put money into Anthropic. Sequoia Capital invested in the company for the first time this year, putting in a total of $3 billion. GIC, a fund that invests money for the Singapore government, has invested more than $4.5 billion since last year. Both firms are believed to own about 1% of Anthropic.

Major technology companies have also invested in Anthropic. They include Alphabet, Google's parent company, as well as Amazon, Nvidia and Microsoft.

However, these investments have raised concerns. Some of the same companies investing money in Anthropic also sell it the computer chips and cloud computing services it needs to develop AI. This has led to worries about what is called circular financing, where money invested in a company flows back to its investors when that company buys their products and services.

People are still debating whether AI companies have become too expensive because of too much excitement about the technology. Investors are now watching Anthropic's planned public listing closely. They want to see whether it will encourage even more investment in AI or show that concerns about AI company values becoming too high are justified.