Anthropic's Paper Gains: How Early Backers Are Sitting on Billions Before the IPO

A Pre-IPO Snapshot Worth $965 Billion

Anthropic's journey to a public listing later this year carries an expected valuation ceiling of $2 trillion. Yet even at its current private market valuation of $965 billion, the AI lab has already minted paper fortunes for a roster of venture firms, corporate backers and individual investors who entered at various stages. At Opentechwire, we've tracked the region's AI funding cycles closely, and Anthropic's cap table offers a rare window into how venture returns compound when a company scales at this velocity.

The numbers are striking. Coatue, which first committed capital in 2025 when Anthropic was valued at $183 billion and subsequently co-led the lab's last two funding rounds, has deployed a total of $4.75 billion. That position is now worth approximately $7.5 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. Coatue declined to comment.

Below is a breakdown of what several other backers hold, based on the most recent round's price and ownership disclosures.

Eric Schmidt's 1 Per Cent

The former chief executive of Google participated in Anthropic's Series A in 2021, when the startup carried a post-money valuation of $461 million, according to PitchBook data. Schmidt's early conviction has compounded into roughly 1 per cent ownership of the company. At the current private valuation, that stake is worth nearly $10 billion. His entry price implies a return multiple in the low four digits, a rare outcome even among successful AI infrastructure bets.

Schmidt's involvement extended beyond capital. He has been a vocal advocate for the lab's constitutional AI approach and has advised the founding team on research priorities and talent acquisition. His stake represents one of the largest individual venture positions held by a former corporate executive in the current AI wave.

Iconiq's $17 Billion Position

Iconiq, the investment outfit known for managing capital on behalf of technology founders and executives, wrote a $6 billion cheque to Anthropic last year when the company was already valued at $183 billion. That late-stage commitment, among the largest single checks in venture history, is now worth $17 billion. If Anthropic reaches the high end of its IPO valuation range, Iconiq's position could double again to roughly $34 billion.

The firm's willingness to deploy that scale of capital at a $183 billion valuation reflected confidence in Anthropic's revenue trajectory and the durability of its enterprise contracts. Iconiq's portfolio includes positions in other frontier AI companies, but the Anthropic stake is believed to be the firm's largest single holding by market value.

Menlo Ventures: From Lead Investor to $14 Billion

Menlo Ventures led Anthropic's Series D and has invested more than $1 billion in the company across multiple rounds. That cumulative position is now worth $14 billion. Menlo's involvement began earlier than many of the mega-funds that entered later, giving the firm exposure to several rounds of valuation expansion.

The firm's thesis centred on Anthropic's technical differentiation in safety research and its ability to win enterprise customers in regulated industries such as finance and healthcare. Menlo's stake represents one of the largest venture outcomes in the firm's history, surpassing its earlier returns from Uber and Chime.

Sequoia's Rapid Double

Sequoia Capital, the Silicon Valley institution, backed Anthropic for the first time only earlier this year, when the company was already valued at $380 billion. The firm invested $3 billion for approximately 1 per cent ownership. Even at the current $965 billion valuation, Sequoia has more than doubled its capital in a matter of months.

The timing of Sequoia's entry reflects the firm's strategy of taking concentrated positions in companies that have already demonstrated product-market fit and revenue scale. Anthropic's annualised revenue is believed to have crossed $10 billion at the time of Sequoia's investment, reducing execution risk relative to earlier-stage AI labs.

Sound Ventures and the Series C Cohort

Sound Ventures, the firm launched by Guy Oseary and actor Ashton Kutcher, invested $35 million in Anthropic's 2023 Series C round, when the company was valued at $5 billion. The firm has since deployed an additional $400 million, bringing its total commitment to $435 million. That stake is now worth several billion dollars. Kutcher departed Sound Ventures this year to establish a new venture firm, but his exposure to Anthropic remains among his most significant portfolio holdings.

Spark Capital, the only venture firm known to hold a board seat at Anthropic, also participated in the 2023 Series C with a $75 million investment. That position has expanded more than ninetyfold to approximately $7 billion. Spark's board representation gives the firm governance influence and early visibility into strategic decisions, including the timing and structure of the public offering.

What the IPO Window Means for Liquidity

The valuations cited here reflect private secondary-market transactions and the pricing of Anthropic's most recent funding round. Public market investors may assign a different multiple to the company's revenue and growth rate, and the final IPO valuation will depend on market conditions, investor appetite for AI infrastructure plays and the company's disclosed financials at the time of listing.

For venture firms, the IPO represents the first opportunity to realise gains at scale. Many of the backers listed above hold positions through funds with ten-year terms, and an Anthropic exit would generate returns that can be distributed to limited partners. The size of these stakes also means that selling down will take time. Lock-up periods typically restrict insider sales for 180 days post-IPO, and large holders often stagger sales to avoid moving the stock price.

The Broader Context of AI Funding

Anthropic's cap table is a case study in how venture capital has adapted to the capital intensity of foundation model development. The company has raised more than $20 billion in total equity funding, a figure that would have been unthinkable for a software startup a decade ago. Training runs for frontier models now cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and the compute infrastructure required to serve enterprise customers at scale demands ongoing capital.

The involvement of both early-stage firms such as Spark and Menlo, and late-stage allocators such as Iconiq and Coatue, reflects a bifurcation in venture strategy. Early backers accepted technology risk in exchange for ownership at low valuations. Late-stage investors traded higher entry prices for reduced execution risk and exposure to a proven revenue model.

The funding rounds we've followed across the region show a similar pattern in markets such as South Korea and Singapore, where AI infrastructure companies are raising growth-stage rounds at valuations that compress traditional venture return profiles. The Anthropic outcome, if realised at the expected scale, will reinforce the logic of concentrated bets on category-defining companies, even at elevated valuations.

Risks Ahead of the Listing

Several variables could affect the final outcome. Regulatory scrutiny of AI companies has intensified in both the United States and the European Union, with export controls on advanced chips and proposed rules on model transparency creating compliance costs. Anthropic's revenue concentration among a small number of enterprise customers also presents risk; any slowdown in corporate AI adoption could weigh on growth forecasts.

Competition from OpenAI, Google DeepMind and a cohort of open-weight model providers continues to pressure pricing and margin. Anthropic's constitutional AI framework and focus on safety research differentiate the company in some customer segments, but the durability of that moat remains untested at public-market scale.

For the backers listed above, the paper gains are significant but not yet liquid. The IPO will mark the beginning of a multi-year process of position management, tax planning and reinvestment into the next generation of AI infrastructure companies. The final returns will depend not only on the IPO price, but on how Anthropic navigates the transition from high-growth private company to public-market incumbent.