People familiar with the matter said buyers interested in the Anthropic stake had signed nondisclosure agreements before the announcement that FTX was halting the sale.
bankrupt crypto exchange ftx has put on hold the sale of its stake in artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic. Bloomberg revealed The company is suspending the $500 million sale of its most sought-after asset despite several parties showing interest in the deal. Per the report, Parella Weinberg Partners, the investment bank in charge of the FTX bankruptcy, provided an update to bidders eyeing the Anthropic stake.
AI firms have become a highly sought-after company amid the ongoing boom in the artificial intelligence industry. Since it was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, privately held Anthropic has been making waves, and it recently closed a $450 million funding round. The company said in May that it had raised funding to support the development of AI Bot Cloud. While Spark Capital led the Series C funding round, the participants were Sound Ventures, Zoom Ventures, Google, Salesforce Ventures etc.
FTX halts sale of Anthropic stake
After months of due diligence by potential bidders, FTX called off the sale of its stake in Anthropic. People familiar with the matter said various potential buyers had appraised private details about the stake. Buyers looking for opportunities to buy shares in private companies like Anthropic were waiting for the FTX sale. A June report by Semaphore said the AI startup is valued at $4.6 billion.
An internal document revealed that FTX and Almeida invested $500 million in Anthropic. Following the revelation, Perella Weinberg began an effort to sell off the exchange’s shares in the AI startup for “hundreds of millions of dollars”. Anthropic stock represents one of FTX’s largest investments, in addition to its $1.5 billion investment in Genesis Digital.
In addition, people familiar with the matter noted that buyers interested in the Anthropic stake had signed nondisclosure agreements prior to the announcement that FTX was halting the sale. Prior to the latest update, it was uncertain whether FTX AI was selling its entire stake in the company. Also, the proceeds from the transaction were to be paid to its former customers. According to a recent report, FTX had around $2 billion in embezzlement compensation. The new CEO of the exchange, John Ray, said that about $7 billion has been recovered. alleged Misappropriation of $8.7B in user funds. one in Press releaseThe CEO said the report reflects the company’s effort to be transparent during the restructuring. In addition, the company cited political donations and VC investments that were likely funded with customer deposits.
Ibukun is a crypto/finance writer interested in delivering relevant information using non-complicated words to reach all types of audiences. Apart from writing, she enjoys watching movies, cooking and exploring restaurants in the city of Lagos where she lives.
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