Google invests $300M in AI firm previously funded by Sam Bankman-Fried
Google Cloud has reportedly invested $300 million into artificial intelligence (AI) startup firm Anthropic, which also happened to receive over $500 million in funds from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried about six months before FTX catastrophically collapsed.
While the $300 million figure was reported by Financial Times on Feb. 4, Anthropic confirmed the investment partnership with Google Cloud on the same day despite not disclosing any figures:
We're excited to use Google Cloud to train our AI systems, including Claude! https://t.co/IaqQ5lpJrP https://t.co/vOn5Cj4sPt
— Anthropic (@AnthropicAI) February 3, 2023In the same announcement, Anthropic also confirmed that they previously raised capital from Bankman-Fried and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, among others, in its Series B fundraising round:
The Series B round was led by Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX. The round also included participation from Caroline Ellison, Jim McClave, Nishad Singh, Jaan Tallinn, and the Center for Emerging Risk Research (CERR)."The fundraising efforts led by Bankman-Fried took place in April, 2022, according to Crunchbase.
A recent post by The New York Times reported that of the $580 million raised, about $530 million came from Bankman-Fried and his former business partners.
But some believe the figure to be even higher too.
One FTX creditor believes Bankman-Fried’s stake in the AI company could be as high as $1.1 billion. However, the creditor didn't elaborate on the figure.
Other members of the Crypto Twitter community are also speculating whether Bankman-Fried’s stake will be used to pay off the massive pile of debt that FTX has accumulated from their recent controversies.
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As for the partnership, Anthropic will now utilize Google Cloud’s GPU and TPU clusters to train, expand, and implement its AI chatbox, called “Claude” — similar to that of OpenAI's ChatGTP.
Google Cloud received about a 10% stake in Anthropic, according to Financial Times.
While it remains to be seen where the bulk of the debt in the FTX bankruptcy case will be sourced from, Bankman-Fried personally pleaded not guiltty to all eight fraud and conspiracy-based charges laid against him on Jan. 3.
Bankman-Fried currently remains under house arrest at his parent’s California home until his trial date, which is set for Oct. 2, 2023.