The realm of artificial intelligence (AI) is heating up. Anthropic, an AI security and analytics firm, has just announced an investment of $300 million from Google. According to the Financial Times, three sources with knowledge of the deal say that Google will receive a 10% equity in Anthropic. Interestingly, earlier this April the AI company raised roughly $500 million with contributions from Sam Bankman-Fried – FTX’s co-founder, Caroline Ellison – former CEO of Alameda, Nishad Singh – former director of engineering at FTX, and many other investors.
Sam Bankman-Fried Backed AI Firm Raises $300 Million With Google Investment
The competition among AI firms has intensified following the launch of Openai and Microsoft’s chatbot GPT-3. Anthropic, an AI company, has secured a $300 million investment from Google. According to the Financial Times, three sources familiar with the deal reported that Google will receive a 10% stake in the AI firm. The sources also shared that the funds will be used for purchasing IT assets, as per the FT report.
Anthropic’s website also provides insight into the matter. The AI company’s announcement page states that it has selected Google Cloud as its preferred cloud provider selection. “The partnership is designed for companies to collaborate on the development of AI systems,” the announcement reads. “Anthropic will use Google Cloud’s advanced GPU and TPU clusters to train, scale, and deploy its AI systems.” Like Openai, Anthropic has also developed an AI assistant called “Claude” which is focused on using steerable AI systems and security enhancements.
The same announcement page, underneath Google’s investment, mentions that the company has received funding from Sam Bankman-Fried – FTX’s previous co-founder. “The Series B round was led by Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX. The round also included the participation of Caroline Ellison, Jim McClave, Nishad Singh, Jaan Tallinn and the Center for Emerging Risks Research (CERR)”, the announcement reads. Anthropic had made the announcement in April 2022.
Reports suggest that Bankman-Fried and his associates contributed up to $500 million of the $580 million raised by Anthropic. The crypto community has been discussing Bankman-Fried’s funding in the AI company. A Twitter account called Autism Capital tweeted: “Google just invested $300 million in Sam Bankman-Fried backed Anthropic AI.” The tweet further reads: “Sam, FTX and notable figures of effective altruism like Jaan Tallinn led Anthropic’s Series B for $580 million.”
FTX creditor Sunil Okay replied to a tweet and said that Bankman-Fried’s stake could be worth a range of “$700 million to $1.1 billion.” When an individual asked Sunil Okay what he thinks could happen to the stake, he answered: “We will have to sell the stake
