FTX Bankruptcy Estate Nets $884M via Majority Sale of Anthropic Shares

The FTX bankruptcy estate has closed a deal to sell most of its shares in the AI startup Anthropic, raising $884 million from institutional investors, led by Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund. The sale represents a significant gain for the estate, which acquired the shares for $500 million in 2021, and will contribute to its goal of reimbursing FTX customers in full.

FTX Estate Raises $884 Million in Majority Sale of Anthropic Shares

The FTX bankruptcy estate has reached an agreement to divest a majority of its shares in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic Technology, Inc. to a syndicate of two dozen institutional investors, yielding a total of $884 million.

According to court filings unsealed on Friday, the largest single purchaser is ATIC Third International Investment Company, a venture capital fund wholly owned by Mubadala, the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi. ATIC has committed to acquiring 16,664,167 shares of Anthropic from FTX for a consideration of $500 million.

Other notable participants in the transaction include Jane Street Global Trading, a proprietary trading firm that formerly employed former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried; undisclosed funds affiliated with Fidelity Investments; and The Ford Foundation, a philanthropic organization.

The sale represents a significant recovery for the FTX estate, which has been tasked with repaying creditors and customers following the exchange's spectacular collapse in November 2022. In January, the estate announced its intention to reimburse account holders for the full value of their assets as of the bankruptcy filing. The announcement of the Anthropic share sale contributed to a 10% increase in the price of FTX's FTT token.

FTX and its affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research, initially acquired their 8% stake in Anthropic in 2021 for a price of $500 million. The subsequent surge in interest in artificial intelligence, fueled in part by the popularity of ChatGPT, resulted in a substantial appreciation in the value of the shares. In February, a New York bankruptcy judge authorized the estate to proceed with the sale.

An earlier attempt to divest the shares in June 2023 was ultimately unsuccessful due to protracted due diligence inquiries. The successful conclusion of the present transaction marks a departure from the fire sale approach employed in other recent FTX asset disposals, such as the $50 million sale of LedgerX last year. FTX acquired the U.S.-based derivatives exchange for $298 million in 2021.