“Anthropic Is Lining up a New Slate of Investors, but the AI Startup Has Ruled out Saudi Arabia”, 2024-03-22 (; backlinks):
- Sovereign wealth funds and other investors are jostling to buy into an Anthropic stake worth more than $1 billion.
The AI startup has ruled out taking any Saudi money over national security concerns, sources say, despite the kingdom’s ambitions to get in on the AI boom.
Existing Anthropic stakeholders, including Amazon and Google, are not expected to increase their holdings in this round.
…As bankers line up a group of potential new Anthropic backers, the company has ruled out taking money from the Saudis, according to people familiar with the matter. Anthropic executives cited national security, one of the sources told CNBC…The class B shares, which don’t come with voting rights, are being sold at Anthropic’s last valuation of $18.4 billion, sources said.
…While Anthropic’s founders told bankers they wouldn’t accept Saudi money, they don’t plan to challenge funding from other sovereign wealth funds, including United Arab Emirates fund Mubadala. The UAE-based firm is actively looking at investing, according to one of the sources.
…Anthropic founders Dario Amodei & Daniela Amodei have the right to challenge any potential investors, according to the sources. However, they are not involved in the current fundraising process, or in the discussions with potential investors in FTX’s stake.