In this graphic example, the Anthropic logo is visible on a smartphone screen.
Paolo Gonchar | SOPA Images | Light Rocket | Getty Images
Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has reached an agreement with a consortium of buyers to sell most of its stake in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic for $884 million, according to a Delaware court filing late Friday.
The March 22 document lists a mix of buyers, with the largest stake being given to ATIC Third International Investment Company, an enterprise linked to a sovereign wealth fund exchange in the United Arab Emirates. That group is buying about $500 million worth of Anthropic shares.
Several sovereign wealth funds were reportedly vying for a piece of FTX’s Anthropic stake. Saudi Arabia was specifically ruled out over national security concerns, sources told CNBC on Friday. The United Arab Emirates is sinking billions of dollars into tech investment funds in an effort to attract talent and diversify away from oil.
The second largest buyer in the Anthropic transaction is Jane Street, the quantitative trading firm where FTX founder Sam Bankman Freud worked before striking out on his own. Carolyn Ellison, former CEO of FTX’s sister hedge fund Alameda Research, also previously worked at Jane Street. The firm is buying about $100 million worth of shares.
Jane Street’s head of quantitative research, Craig Falls, has also proposed to personally buy about $20 million worth of shares.
Funds managed by venture fund HOF Capital, the Ford Foundation and Fidelity Management are among the list of about two dozen buyers.
The sale is not yet final and must be cleared by Judge John Dorsey, who is overseeing FTX’s bankruptcy case in Delaware. If approved, the sale would total approximately two-thirds of FTX’s stake in Anthropic.
In November, Bankman-Fried was indicted on seven criminal counts related to the collapse of FTX. He will be sentenced Thursday, and prosecutors are recommending a sentence of 40 to 50 years.
Sam Bankman Freud, founder of FTX, leaves a US courthouse in New York City on July 26, 2023.
Amr al-Fiki | Reuters
Under Bankman-Fried’s leadership, FTX invested $500 million in Anthropic, which was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees at an early stage in generative AI. The company is valued at $18 billion in December 2023, making FTX’s roughly 8 percent stake worth about $1.4 billion.
For months, the bankrupt estate has been trying to sell its stake in Anthropic, as it seeks to repay clients who lost money when FTX collapsed in late 2022. Anthropic has raised $7 billion in the past few years from big tech companies like Amazon and Alphabet. . Meanwhile, rival OpenAI’s valuation tripled to $80 billion in less than 10 months.
Under new CEO John Ray III, FTX is recovering cash, luxury property and crypto, as well as tracking down missing assets. His team has already raised more than $7 billion, not including such valuables as $26 million in gifts and estates to Bankman Freud’s parents, or the $700 million handed over to K5 Global and founder Michael Keaves, who invested FTX cash in companies like SpaceX. Some of these investments have seen rapid appreciation in value.
Lawyers representing the bankruptcy estate told a judge in Delaware last month that they expect to fully repay consumers and creditors with legitimate claims. Bankruptcy attorney Andrew Dietrich, who works with FTX’s new leadership team, said “there’s still a lot of work and risk” in getting all the money back to clients, but that the team “has Strategy”
FTX had been in talks with bidders about a possible reboot of the company, but those efforts were called off in January.