Google Cloud Invests $300 Million in AI Startup Anthropic



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Google Cloud Invests $300 Million in AI Startup Anthropic

In a recent development, Google Cloud has reportedly invested $300 million in artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic, which was confirmed by the latter in a statement on February 4. However, the exact figures of the investment were not disclosed by the company.

The same statement revealed that Anthropic had also received over $500 million in funding from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-fried, who led a Series B funding round in April 2022. This round also saw participation from Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, Jim McClave, Nishad Singh, Jaan Tallinn, and the Center for Research on Emerging Risks (CERR).

Financial Speculations Amidst FTX's Troubles

This investment has sparked speculations among members of the Crypto Twitter community about the fate of FTX and its creditors, particularly whether Bankman-Fried and FTX will receive the $530 million invested in Anthropic to pay off its creditors.

A recent report by The New York Times suggested that of the $580 million raised in the Series B round, approximately $530 million came from Bankman-Fried and his former business partners. However, some members of the community believe the figure could be even higher.

“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)”. Anthropic statement added. An Ftx creditor stated that Bankman-Fried's stake in AI could be worth as much as $1.1 billion, though the exact figure was not specified.

The speculation about Bankman-Fried's stake being used to pay off the debt accumulated by FTX due to recent controversies continues to persist among members of the Crypto Twitter community.

Partnership with Google Cloud

As part of the partnership, Anthropic will leverage Google Cloud GPU and TPU clusters to train, scale and deploy its AI chatbox called “Claude”, similar to OpenAI ChatGPT.

The Financial Times reported that Google Cloud has acquired about a 10% stake in Anthropic. On the other hand, Bankman-Fried remains under house arrest at her parents' home in California and has pleaded not guilty to the eight fraud and conspiracy charges filed against her on January 3. Her trial is set for October 2, 2023.

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