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

Eric Schmidt, the former CEO and chairman of Google, holds an estimated 1% stake in the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, according to a report by Bloomberg citing sources familiar with the matter. Based on Anthropic's last private funding round in May 2026, which valued the company at $965 billion, Schmidt's current holding is worth approximately $9.65 billion. With Anthropic planning its initial public offering (IPO) next month, targeting a market valuation between $1.8 trillion and $2 trillion, Schmidt's stake could reach $18 billion to $20 billion. This potential return is considered one of the highest for an individual investor in the history of the U.S. stock market, stemming from an early-stage investment made before the company launched a commercial product.

Schmidt's investment in Anthropic occurred during the company's first institutional funding round announced on May 28, 2021, a few months after its founding by Dario Amodei and his sister Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at OpenAI. That initial round raised $124 million, led by Jan Tallinn, a co-founder of Skype, with participation from Dustin Moskovitz (co-founder of Facebook and Asana), James McClave, and the Center for Emerging Risk Research. Bloomberg reported that Schmidt's connection to CEO Dario Amodei was facilitated through a prior acquaintance with Amodei's wife, Kami Clark. Schmidt, who led Google from 2001 to 2011 and now manages his philanthropic and investment entities, Schmidt Futures and Schmidt Sciences, has previously stated that his investment decision was based on his assessment of Amodei's scientific capabilities rather than a fully developed business plan. The exact amount Schmidt initially invested and his participation in subsequent rounds to avoid dilution have not been officially disclosed, with the 1% ownership based on market estimates.

Anthropic's valuation surge reflects its rapid capital raises since its 2021 inception, driven by demand for its advanced language models, the Claude family. Following its initial 2021 round, Anthropic raised $580 million in April 2022, led by Sam Bankman-Fried and the FTX exchange. In May 2023, the company secured $450 million with participation from Spark Capital, Google, Salesforce, and Zoom. A significant acceleration in valuation began in March 2025 with a $3.5 billion round at a $61.5 billion valuation, followed by a $13 billion raise in September 2025 at $183 billion. Further rounds in February 2026 ($30 billion at $380 billion valuation) and May 2026 ($65 billion at $965 billion valuation, including Amazon) propelled its growth.

Alongside its private funding rounds, Anthropic is preparing for its IPO on the Nasdaq, having filed a confidential prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on June 1, 2026. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley are leading the offering, which is expected to raise over $60 billion. Investor roadshows are slated to begin the week of November 9, with the aim of commencing trading before the Thanksgiving holiday on November 26 and completing the listing by the end of 2026. While Reuters reported a target valuation of $2 trillion in late September, Bloomberg indicates investors are considering a range of $1.8 trillion to $2 trillion, which would make it the largest IPO in Wall Street history.

Despite its rapid valuation growth, Anthropic's 2025 financial data reveals significant development and infrastructure costs typical of the AI industry. Revenues grew to approximately $4.6 billion in 2025 from $386 million in 2024, though about 25% came from just two major clients. The company reported a net loss of about $42 billion in 2025, largely due to a non-cash accounting charge of $34 billion related to the fair value revaluation of financial instruments and convertible liabilities. Excluding these items, the operating loss for 2025 was approximately $8.06 billion. Additionally, Anthropic has multi-year commitments for computing infrastructure and cloud servers totaling around $518 billion.

The anticipated IPO is expected to generate substantial capital gains for numerous tech corporations and venture capital firms that have invested billions in Anthropic. Amazon is the largest external shareholder with about 21%, having invested $13 billion between September 2023 and April 2026, with an option for an additional $20 billion. Alphabet holds 14% to 15% after investing roughly $3.3 billion since 2022. Nvidia and Microsoft collectively invested up to $15 billion by late 2025. Early strategic investors like Salesforce and Zoom are also poised for significant paper gains. Investment firms such as Menlo, Lightspeed, Fidelity, BlackRock, and Blackstone are awaiting the public release of the prospectus. In Israel, Clal Insurance is among the beneficiaries of Anthropic's valuation increase.