Spark Capital's $75 Million Anthropic Stake Is Now Worth $7 Billion

By Daniel Okafor

A $75 million investment made in 2023 is now worth about $7 billion. That is the position Spark Capital holds in Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company pushing for a U.S. listing this year, Bloomberg reported on the 22nd. The stake has grown 93 times in three years.

The gains are paper gains, not cash. But the numbers explain why the IPO has become the most watched deal in technology finance.

How big are the early investors' winnings?

Menlo Ventures started buying in 2023, when Anthropic was still seen as a latecomer to OpenAI. Its cumulative investment exceeds $1 billion. Its stake is now valued at about $14 billion.

Sound Ventures, co-founded by actor Ashton Kutcher, put in $35 million in 2023 and later added $400 million. Reports place its current stake in the billions of dollars.

Iconiq arrived late and still won big. The firm has invested more than $6 billion since last year and holds a stake estimated at about $17 billion. If Anthropic lists at $2 trillion, that stake could roughly double.

Who gains the most among individuals?

Former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt is considered one of the biggest winners. He put tens of millions of dollars into Anthropic's Series A round in 2021 and now holds about 1% of the company, Bloomberg reported on the 20th.

The math is stark. PitchBook data puts Anthropic's 2021 valuation at just $461 million. Apply the $2 trillion listing target and the company's value has risen roughly 4,300-fold.

At that valuation, Schmidt's stake would be worth as much as $20 billion. His fortune, currently about $57.5 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, would approach $80 billion. The exact size of his investment, his precise stake and whether he sold shares along the way remain undisclosed.

Anthropic's seven co-founders are each worth about $8 billion at the recent valuation. Employees holding stock compensation are expected to see sharp increases in wealth if the listing goes through.

What happens at the IPO?

Anthropic plans to begin formally courting investors as early as the week starting Nov. 9, according to Bloomberg. The company wants to start trading before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, or complete the listing by the end of the year at the latest.

The target valuation reaches $2 trillion, against a most recent private valuation of $965 billion. A listing at that level would surpass the record set by SpaceX, which went public in June at $1.77 trillion.

New money keeps arriving. Sequoia Capital invested in Anthropic for the first time this year, committing a total of $3 billion. Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC has invested more than $4.5 billion since last year. Both firms are believed to hold stakes of about 1%.

Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia and Microsoft have also joined as major investors.

Is the financing structure a concern?

Critics see a problem. These technology companies invest in Anthropic while also supplying the chips and cloud infrastructure it needs for AI development. Observers have raised concerns about a so-called circular financing structure.

The debate over an AI bubble continues. Anthropic's listing will either fuel the investment frenzy further or test the argument that valuations have run too high. The market gets its answer within months.