Google invests $300M in AI agency beforehand funded by Sam Bankman-Fried

Google Cloud has reportedly invested $300 million into synthetic intelligence (AI) startup agency Anthropic, which additionally occurred to obtain over $500 million in funds from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried about six months earlier than FTX catastrophically collapsed.

Whereas the $300 million determine was reported by Monetary Instances on Feb. 4, Anthropic confirmed the funding partnership with Google Cloud on the identical day regardless of not disclosing any figures:

We’re excited to make use of Google Cloud to coach our AI methods, together with Claude! https://t.co/IaqQ5lpJrP https://t.co/vOn5Cj4sPt

— Anthropic (@AnthropicAI) February 3, 2023

In the identical announcement, Anthropic additionally confirmed that they beforehand raised capital from Bankman-Fried and former Alameda Analysis CEO Caroline Ellison, amongst others, in its Sequence B fundraising spherical:

The Sequence B spherical was led by Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX. The spherical additionally included participation from Caroline Ellison, Jim McClave, Nishad Singh, Jaan Tallinn, and the Heart for Rising Danger Analysis (CERR).”

The fundraising efforts led by Bankman-Fried passed off in April, 2022, in accordance to Crunchbase.

A latest submit by The New York Instances reported that of the $580 million raised, about $530 million got here from Bankman-Fried and his former enterprise companions.

However some consider the determine to be even greater too.

One FTX creditor believes Bankman-Fried’s stake within the AI firm may very well be as excessive as $1.1 billion. Nonetheless, the creditor did not elaborate on the determine.

Different members of the Crypto Twitter neighborhood are additionally speculating whether or not Bankman-Fried’s stake will likely be used to repay the huge pile of debt that FTX has gathered from their latest controversies. 

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As for the partnership, Anthropic will now make the most of Google Cloud’s GPU and TPU clusters to practice, broaden, and implement its AI chatbox, known as “Claude” — much like that of OpenAI’s ChatGTP.

Google Cloud obtained a few 10% stake in Anthropic, in accordance with Monetary Instances.

Whereas it stays to be seen the place the majority of the debt within the FTX chapter case will likely be sourced from, Bankman-Fried personally pleaded not guiltty to all eight fraud and conspiracy-based costs laid in opposition to him on Jan. 3.

Bankman-Fried presently stays beneath home arrest at his guardian’s California house till his trial date, which is ready for Oct. 2, 2023.