Eric Schmidt's 1% Anthropic Stake Could Be Worth $20 Billion

By Nathan Brooks

Eric Schmidt owns roughly 1% of Anthropic — a stake that could add as much as $20 billion to his net worth if the AI lab goes public at the valuations some market watchers now project. That's the estimate Bloomberg published, based on Schmidt's investment of tens of millions of dollars in Anthropic's Series A round in 2021.

The numbers here are worth slowing down for. At the time Schmidt wrote his check, PitchBook data put Anthropic's valuation at just $461 million. Today, top-end market estimates value the company at as much as $2 trillion — more than 4,000 times that 2021 figure. Bloomberg currently pegs Schmidt's net worth at $57.5 billion, so a $20 billion windfall would grow his fortune by roughly a third in one listing.

The comparison that jumps out is how Schmidt's slice stacks up against the founder's. Co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei holds about 2% of the company, according to the report. In other words, the former Google CEO — who joined Anthropic's cap table as an outside investor — owns about half as much of the lab as the man running it.

What does this change for investors watching the IPO?

Anthropic is widely expected to go public before the end of the year. If Bloomberg's estimate holds, Schmidt's position becomes one of the largest individual outsider stakes in a company that has become a centerpiece of the AI trade. Early-stage checks in AI labs are already producing outcomes that rival the best venture returns on record; a 1% position bought at a $461 million valuation converting to $20 billion does the math for you.

Schmidt didn't respond to a request for comment, and neither did Anthropic. So the 1% figure remains an estimate, not a confirmed cap-table entry.

Where this fits in Schmidt's portfolio

Schmidt has been an active tech investor since stepping down as Google CEO in 2011. He deploys capital through multiple vehicles:

• Tomorrow Ventures
• Innovation Endeavors Management
• Hillspire, his family office

Anthropic isn't his only AI bet. His other positions include Mistral, General Intuition, and Reflection AI, according to the report. But the Anthropic stake dwarfs those holdings in potential dollar terms, simply because of the size of the company underneath it.

For practitioners, the practical takeaway is straightforward: pre-IPO stakes in the top tier of AI labs are now producing paper returns once reserved for founding teams. Schmidt bought in when Anthropic was a $461 million startup. If the listing lands anywhere near the $2 trillion top-end estimates, that single Series A decision becomes one of the most profitable outside investments in modern tech history — and it will set the benchmark every late-stage investor uses to price the next AI round.