Report: Eric Schmidt owns about 1% of Anthropic

In short: Bloomberg reports that former Google CEO Eric Schmidt owns about 1% of AI company Anthropic.

What happened

Bloomberg reported that Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, owns about 1% of Anthropic. Anthropic is an AI company known for building chatbots, including Claude (a chatbot is software you can talk to, like texting a customer support agent).

The report says Schmidt invested tens of millions of dollars in Anthropic’s Series A funding round in 2021. At the time, the company was valued at $461 million, according to PitchBook.

If the estimate is correct, Schmidt’s stake is large compared with co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei’s reported 2% stake. Reuters has previously reported on Amodei’s ownership level.

TechCrunch reported that Anthropic is widely expected to go public before the end of the year. Going public means the company would sell shares on a stock market, like putting a price tag on small slices of the business that anyone can buy.

At the highest end of market estimates mentioned by TechCrunch, Anthropic could be valued at as much as $2 trillion. At that valuation, a 1% stake could add around $20 billion to Schmidt’s net worth, based on Bloomberg’s math.

Schmidt and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to TechCrunch.

Why it matters

This is a reminder that a small percentage of a fast-growing AI company can still be worth enormous sums. It also shows how much money is tied to AI companies ahead of potential stock market debuts, which can affect investors, employees with stock, and the broader tech industry.

Source: TechCrunch AI