FTX Real Estate sells majority stake in startup Anthropic for $884 million | Wilnesh News

Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has reached an agreement with a consortium of buyers to sell its majority stake in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic for $884 million, according to documents filed in a Delaware court late Friday.

The document, dated March 22, lists a series of buyers, with the largest stake being ATIC Third International Investment Co., a partnership with Mubadala, the sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates. The group is buying nearly $500 million worth of Anthropic stock.

According to reports, multiple sovereign wealth funds are vying to acquire FTX’s Anthropic shares. Sources told CNBC on Friday that Saudi Arabia was specifically excluded due to national security concerns. The country has been pouring billions into technology investment funds in an attempt to attract talent from the UAE and diversify beyond oil.

The second-largest buyer in the Anthropic deal was Jane Street, a quantitative trading firm where FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried worked before going out on his own. Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of FTX sister hedge fund Alameda Research, also previously worked at Jane Street. The company is buying nearly $100 million worth of stock.

Jane Street Head of Quantitative Research, craig fallsalso proposed individuals purchasing approximately $20 million worth of shares.

The list of nearly two dozen buyers also includes venture capital fund HOF Capital, the Ford Foundation and funds managed by Fidelity Management.

The sale has not yet been finalized and must be approved by John Dorsey, the judge overseeing FTX’s bankruptcy case in Delaware.If approved, the sale will total FTX holds nearly two-thirds of Anthropic.

In November, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven criminal counts related to the FTX debacle. He is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, with prosecutors recommending a sentence of 40 to 50 years in prison.

Under Bankman-Fried’s leadership, FTX invested $500 million in Anthropic, a company founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees before the generative AI boom. In December 2023, the company’s valuation reached $18 billion, which would bring the roughly 8% stake in FTX to about $1.4 billion.

The bankruptcy estate has been looking to sell its stake in Anthropic for months as it attempts to repay customers lost due to the collapse of FTX in late 2022. Anthropic has grown over the past few years from big tech companies like Amazon and letter.At the same time, competitors OpenAI’s valuation triples It grew to $80 billion in less than 10 months.

Under new CEO John Ray III, FTX has been recovering cash, luxury properties and cryptocurrency, as well as tracking missing assets.His group has raised more than $7 billion, not including valuables like the $26 million in gifts and estates given to Bankman-Fried’s parents, or $700 million handed over to K5 Global and its founder Michael Kives, who invested his FTX cash in companies like SpaceX. Some of these investments have risen dramatically in value.

Lawyers representing the bankruptcy estate told a Delaware judge last month that they hope to fully repay customers and creditors through legal claims. Bankruptcy attorney Andrew Dietderich, who is working with FTX’s new leadership team, said there is “still a lot of work and risk” in returning all funds to customers, but the team has “a strategy to get there.”

FTX has been in talks with bidders about the possibility of a company restart, but these efforts scrapped in January.