Anthropic backers' stakes already worth billions ahead of IPO

Anthropic’s public listing, expected this year in a deal that could value the AI lab at as much as $2 trillion, is set to hand sizeable paper gains to the venture firms and individuals who backed it early. At the company’s current private valuation of $965 billion, several of those stakes are already worth billions, according to Bloomberg estimates.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt backed Anthropic’s Series A in 2021, a round that priced the startup at $461 million, per PitchBook data. His stake, about 1% of the company, is now worth nearly $10 billion. Spark Capital, believed to be the only VC firm with a board seat at Anthropic, turned a $75 million bet in the 2023 Series C round — when the company was valued at $5 billion — into a position now worth $7 billion, a gain of more than ninetyfold.

Menlo Ventures, which led Anthropic’s Series D, has committed more than $1 billion to the company over time, a position now valued at $14 billion. Iconiq’s $6 billion check last year, when Anthropic was valued at $183 billion, is now worth $17 billion and could double again at the IPO. Sequoia joined for the first time only this year at a $380 billion valuation, putting in $3 billion for about 1% of the company — a stake already worth more than double that. Sound Ventures, co-founded by Guy Oseary and Ashton Kutcher, put $35 million into the 2023 Series C round and later added $400 million more, a combined stake Bloomberg says is worth billions.

Why it matters

If Anthropic’s listing reaches anywhere close to the valuation of as much as $2 trillion some expect, the IPO would rank among the largest paydays in venture history, underscoring how concentrated the AI boom’s upside has been among a handful of early and late-stage backers.