FTX Founder Misses Anthropic Listing, $40 Billion Gone Up in Smoke

Sam Bankman-Fried, the incarcerated founder of FTX and Alameda Research, could have earned enough from his substantial stakes in Anthropic and Anysphere, the parent company of Cursor, to save his own firms.
SBF could be the biggest loser in next week's IPO. The offering is expected to value Anthropic at over $1.5 trillion, a figure that could reach $2 trillion if shares surge as analysts and Polymarket traders anticipate.
Sam Bankman-Fried's Alameda Research was one of Anthropic's earliest investors. It invested $500 million in 2021, a deal reportedly securing a 14% stake. At the time, Anthropic was a little-known, small AI lab. If the company goes public at a $1.5 trillion valuation, that stake would be worth approximately $37 billion.
However, the FTX bankruptcy estate has liquidated its Anthropic shares to repay creditors, meaning it will not benefit from this IPO. The estate sold the stake in 2024 for $1.3 billion, with proceeds used to repay creditors and depositors. Buyers included Mubadala Investment Company, the Ford Foundation, and Jane Street Capital, where SBF once worked.
SBF also invested in other top companies that later became extremely valuable. For example, he put $200,000 into Anysphere's pre-seed round. Over the years, Cursor's creator Anysphere was acquired by SpaceX for $60 billion, meaning that investment could have been worth billions.
Another notable investment was Robinhood, into which he poured $500 million in 2022. Today, an 8% stake in the company would be worth over $4.5 billion.
SBF has expressed regret over filing for bankruptcy and has cited these potential returns in his bid for a pardon. He has applied to President Donald Trump for clemency, making a direct appeal in a Fox News interview and posting in support of Trump's policies. However, Trump said in January he would not pardon him.