FTX Is Back on the WSJ Front Page, and SBF’s Old Bets Are Cashing In on the AI Boom

FTX’s investment legacy is attracting attention again as artificial intelligence gives businesses backed by Sam Bankman-Fried a new commercial future.

Frank Chaparro highlighted the exchange’s return to The Wall Street Journal’s business-section front page, pointing to Genesis Digital Assets’ shift toward AI infrastructure and the extraordinary appreciation of Anthropic.

The developments reveal an uncomfortable divide between investment performance and creditor recoveries.

Businesses associated with the collapsed crypto empire are benefiting from the AI boom, but their rising valuations do not automatically translate into additional money for former FTX customers.

Genesis Digital Assets Gets an AI Makeover

Genesis Digital Assets, the Bitcoin miner that received more than $1 billion from FTX affiliate Alameda Research, is finding a second life under SWI Group.

SWI took control of the business this summer and is redirecting its infrastructure toward AI computing, according to The Wall Street Journal. The strategy includes facilities in the United States and Sweden previously associated with the mining operation.

On Oct. 12, SWI announced an €800 million capital increase, approximately $900 million, involving institutional investors. Its announcement said the transaction brought total equity raised since March above €1 billion.

The proceeds will support a broader expansion of SWI’s data-center and AI computing platform across Europe and the US. Planned spending includes power infrastructure, computing deployments, and projects already in its development pipeline.

That distinction matters: the fundraising supports SWI’s wider infrastructure strategy, rather than representing a payment to FTX creditors or spending exclusively on Genesis.

The company also said the transaction would increase its free float to approximately 20%, broadening its institutional shareholder base as it pursues further investment in AI infrastructure.

FTX Dropped Its $1.15 Billion Recovery Lawsuit

Genesis’ new direction follows the dismissal of a major legal dispute over Alameda’s original investment.

The FTX Recovery Trust had sought to recover approximately $1.15 billion, alleging that investments made between August 2021 and April 2022 involved misappropriated funds and inflated share purchases.

The trust voluntarily dismissed all claims with prejudice in June, Bloomberg Law reported. That ended the particular action permanently, although the report said neither side immediately explained why the trust abandoned it.

Law firm Blank Rome separately confirmed that claims against Genesis co-founder Marco Krohn were dismissed with prejudice on June 15. Its account dates the original lawsuit to September 2025.

The dismissal closed an important recovery route for the estate. It should not, however, be treated as a judicial finding resolving the underlying allegations: the trust withdrew the claims before obtaining a judgment on their merits.

Anthropic Highlights the Cost of Selling Early

Anthropic offers an even more dramatic example of how the AI boom has transformed the value of Bankman-Fried’s investments.

FTX’s approximately $500 million investment ultimately generated around $1.3 billion through share sales in 2024, producing roughly $800 million above the original purchase price.

One timeline detail needs correcting: Anthropic’s own announcement identifies Bankman-Fried as the lead investor in its $580 million Series B, which was disclosed in April 2022, not 2021.

The Journal estimates that the former holding is now worth approximately $75 billion. That is a hypothetical valuation, subject to ownership and dilution assumptions, rather than proceeds available to the estate.

The comparison illustrates the enormous upside captured after FTX sold. It also separates two outcomes: the estate realized a substantial investment gain, while subsequent owners retained exposure to Anthropic’s expansion.

For creditors, the relevant figure remains the cash recovered through those sales. The much larger valuation belongs to a counterfactual portfolio that FTX no longer owns.

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