Sale of $500M Stake in AI Startup Put on Hold by FTX
- FTX has put a hold on the sale of its stake in AI startup Anthropic which is worth $500 million.
- A number of buyers were interested in purchasing the stake, but the exchange backed out.
- As per an earlier report, the exchange believes its stake will reach “nine figures” in the near future.
- The investment in Anthropic is the biggest after the exchange’s $1.15 billion stake in Genesis Digital Assets.
The bankrupt crypto exchange formerly headed by crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF in the crypto industry, FTX, has suspended the sale of its stake in artificial intelligence (AI) safety and research startup Anthropic. The crypto exchange has a $2 billion hole in its balance sheet and has to pay a significant amount of money to its creditors.
As per a report from Bloomberg dated June 27, people with knowledge of the matter told the media outlet that Parella Weinberg Partners, the advisory investment bank for FTX, has halted the sale of the $500 million stake in Anthropic this month despite having a number of interested buyers ready to acquire the stake.
It seems that FTX aims to sell its losses first and then, make profitable investments. The recent boom in the artificial intelligence industry might be a major reason why the crypto exchange is reluctant to sell its stake in the startup. According to market rumors, the exchange believes that its stake will reach “nine figures” in the near future.
The sale of the Anthropic stake would do wonders for FTX because, as per the current CEO and Restructuring Officer of the crypto exchange, the firm misappropriated $8.7 billion worth of customers’ funds, of which $7 billion have been located. The sale of the AI startup would put the firm inches away from making its creditors whole.
It was revealed in June by Semafor that FTX was pitching the sale of Anthropic stake to many potential buyers who are now ready to purchase the stake only to witness the crypto exchange back out of the same. The stake in the AI startup is the exchange’s biggest investment after its $1.15 billion investment in Genesis Digital Assets, a cryptocurrency mining firm.
Another crucial detail to note here is that on May 23, Anthropic raised around $450 million in its latest funding round and hit a valuation of $4.6 billion. The startup is known for developing an AI chatbot called “Claude,” which can be deployed for multiple uses like sales, customer service, and web searches.
According to an earlier report from BitcoinWisdom, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York denied Bankman-Fried’s motion to throw out 10 out of 13 charges filed against him, stating that the former FTX executive’s claims “are either moot or without merit.”
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
