Eric Schmidt's 1% Anthropic stake could be worth $20 billion
What's the story
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt owns a 1% stake in Anthropic, a leading AI start-up. The investment was made during the company's Series A funding round. With Anthropic's IPO on the horizon, Schmidt is poised to see one of the biggest individual payoffs from this public offering. His initial investment in Anthropic was made when the company was valued at $461 million, according to PitchBook data.
Valuation impact
Co-founders' fortunes and Schmidt's potential gains
Anthropic's co-founders are already billionaires, each with a fortune of $8 billion, thanks to the company's last funding round.
At a recent investor meeting, a valuation of around $1.5 trillion was discussed, lower than earlier expectations of about $2 trillion.
Even using Anthropic's most recent valuation of $965 billion, Schmidt's stake in Anthropic would add nearly $10 billion to his existing wealth of $57.5 billion, according to Bloomberg's wealth index.
Investment approach
Schmidt's investment journey and AI focus
Over the past 15 years, Schmidt has been a prolific tech investor through various platforms such as TomorrowVentures, Innovation Endeavors, and his Hillspire family office.
His early investments were in consumer internet, software, and fintech. However, artificial intelligence has become a major focus lately with investments in Mistral AI, Reflection AI, World Labs, and Anthropic.
If Anthropic's shares debut at a $2 trillion valuation, Schmidt's investment would outperform Innovation Endeavors' early bet on Uber Technologies Inc.
IPO details
Anthropic IPO timeline and backer details
Anthropic plans to start marketing its initial public offering (IPO) as early as the week of November 9.
The company is expected to debut before the US Thanksgiving holiday, no later than year-end.
Major backers include Alphabet, Amazon, NVIDIA, and Microsoft Corp, which have all invested billions in the maker of the Claude chatbot.