The FTX Foundation has liquidated its remaining shares in Anthropic, the artificial intelligence (AI) company known for its Claude chatbot.
According to the latest bankruptcy filing by the FTX Foundation, the company sold 15 million shares of Anthropic at $30 a share, reaping more than $452 million in profits.
G Squared leads the purchase
Venture capital fund manager G-Squared emerged as the largest buyer, acquiring 4.5 million shares for about $135 million, according to court documents.
Other notable buyers include Fund FG-BLU and more than a dozen hedge funds and investment firms.
This latest sale follows a transaction two months ago, when FTX sold the majority of its stake in Anthropic to primarily Abu Dhabi-based investors for $30 per share.
The previous transaction generated proceeds of approximately $900 million, bringing total proceeds from the sale to approximately $1.3 billion.
Among the major buyers in the initial sale was ATIC Third International Investment Company LLC, which is affiliated with the UAE sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, which acquired about $500 million worth of Antropic shares in FTX.
The sale, like other recent sales, was disclosed through a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
Optimism over FTX creditor repayment
FTX officials are optimistic about the prospects for paying back creditors, given that the foundation’s cash reserves were previously reported to be around $6.4 billion.
Anthropic shares were one of the most valuable assets in FTX's portfolio after now-bankrupt crypto exchange Alameda invested $500 million in 2021 to acquire an 8% stake in Anthropic.
Disgraced entrepreneur Sam Bankman Freed founded trading firm Alameda Research before launching FTX, and he traded billions of dollars from his FTX account, leveraging the exchange's native token as collateral.
Both companies filed for bankruptcy in November 2022. Bankman Freed was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Since then, Anthropic's stock price has risen due to rapid growth in its AI division, and the bankrupt exchange has made a profit of more than $800 million.
Anthropik's value further increased with funding from Google in late 2022. Google reportedly invested around $300 million in the AI startup to better position itself to take on Microsoft and OpenAI in the highly competitive artificial intelligence field.
The sale was made possible after a U.S. bankruptcy court approved FTX's request for divestiture from Anthropic on February 22, causing the value of the shares to more than double the initial investment.
This marked the beginning of a new chapter in the exchange's plan to repay its creditors.
Bankman Freed first invested in Antropic in 2021, giving it a roughly 14% stake in the exchange. However, a subsequent fundraising event by the AI company has diluted its stake in FTX to 7.84%.
However, the sale was met with opposition from FTX customers, who claimed the shares were purchased with misappropriated funds, and they ultimately agreed to allow the sale, provided they could claim the proceeds later.
The crypto exchange first attempted to sell Anthropic shares in June 2023, but that attempt was abandoned. However, the recent sale represents a significant step towards resolving the company's financial obligations.
As the situation unfolds, former customers and investors hope that proceeds from these sales will play a key role in the exchange's efforts to settle its debts and survive bankruptcy proceedings.
Meanwhile, Anthropik is working with Amazon.com Inc., which has invested at least $4 billion in the company.
