Bloomberg's account of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt's early Anthropic investment puts his reported holding near $10 billion on paper, underscoring the sums tied to the AI company's proposed public listing.
Bloomberg put Anthropic's latest private valuation at $965 billion and reported a $65 billion financing in May. A roughly 1% stake would be worth close to $10 billion at that valuation. The value of a future share sale has yet to be determined.
Schmidt's initial backing came in Anthropic's 2021 Series A, with an investment in the tens of millions of dollars, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Its sources put his current ownership at about 1%. Schmidt and Anthropic declined to comment to Bloomberg.
Bloomberg reported investor discussions this month of a valuation between $1.8 trillion and $2 trillion. Reuters separately reported that some attendees discussed a possible valuation of about $1.5 trillion, as detailed in earlier EconoTimes coverage of the proposed IPO. Those discussions do not establish a price for Anthropic's initial public offering.
Other early backers also have large sums tied to Anthropic's valuation. Bloomberg estimated that its seven co-founders were worth about $8 billion each at the last funding round and said employees and investors could benefit from a public offering. The outlet identified Alphabet, Amazon.com, Nvidia and Microsoft among the company's major backers.
Pitchbook data cited by Bloomberg put Anthropic's value at $461 million when Schmidt first invested in 2021. Bloomberg compared his potential return with an early Innovation Endeavors investment in Uber Technologies. Uber's valuation had risen about 1,400-fold by its 2019 stock market debut.
Bloomberg reported that Anthropic may begin marketing the offering during the week of Nov. 9. Its sources expect the company to make its public debut by the end of 2026.
