Wealth Creation Feast Nears Payout: Anthropic Sprinting Toward $2 Trillion IPO, Iconiq, GIC, and Sequoia Among Those Sharing Massive Returns

According to people familiar with the matter, when Iconiq first invested in Anthropic PBC in 2025, the AI developer's valuation had already reached $183 billion, making it one of the most valuable technology startups in the world and a company accelerating into an AI giant. Yet even this late-stage bet by Iconiq is expected to deliver massive returns as Anthropic nears its Wall Street debut. Iconiq has invested more than $6 billion in Anthropic; based on Anthropic's most recent private-market valuation of $965 billion, its stake is worth about $17 billion, the people said. It is the largest deal in Iconiq's history. If Anthropic successfully completes an IPO at a valuation of up to $2 trillionas some expectIconiq's investment could double in value. Anthropic's impending public listing is set to generate billions of dollars in gains for the top venture capital firms, technology companies, and individual investors that have backed the developer of the Claude chatbot Siasun Robot&Automation since the company was founded in 2021. The list of winners includes prescient early backers as well as relatively late entrants who benefited from the company's soaring valuation and rapid rise over the past year. Spark Capital, the only venture firm known to hold a board seat at Anthropic, invested $75 million in the company in 2023its largest single check everand that stake is now worth $7 billion at the current valuation, according to a person familiar with the matter. Sound Ventures, the low-profile firm founded by agent Guy Oseary and actor Ashton Kutcher, invested $35 million in the same round at a $5 billion valuation and has since put in a cumulative $400 million across later financings, with its stake now worth billions of dollars, another person familiar said. The firm is now led by Oseary and managing partner Effie Epstein; Kutcher stepped back earlier this year. By contrast, Sequoia Capital, the prominent venture firm that bet on OpenAI early, did not write its first check to Anthropic until early this year. But Sequoia has invested $3 billion in the startup for about a 1% stake, laying the groundwork for substantial returns, according to people familiar with the matter. Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC has invested more than $4.5 billion in Anthropic since first investing last year and also holds about a 1% stake, the people said. In August, Anthropic formed a strategic partnership with GIC and Macquarie Asset Management to build data centers. Anthropic, Sequoia, Iconiq, Sound, and GIC declined to comment. Spark did not respond to a request for comment. Anthropic is expected to publicly file for an IPO in the coming days, formally launching a listing that could become a rare wealth-creation feastlifting the net worth of the company's seven billionaire co-founders and turning many of its thousands of employees into millionaires. The wealth effect of the IPO could also reverberate across the broader technology and venture ecosystem, fueling future AI investment at a time of growing fears of an AI bubble. Like rival OpenAI, Anthropic has raised money from multiple sources to fund its expensive outlays on chips, data centers, and talent to build better AI models and support the growing adoption of its technology. Some of Anthropic's largest suppliers, including Alphabet's Google, Amazon, and Nvidia, have invested billions of dollars in the startup. Those deals, which had raised concerns about circular financing arrangements fueling the AI boom, will now also deliver substantial returns to Big Tech. In its early days, however, Anthropic was backed mainly by wealthy angel investors such as former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and disgraced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Schmidt holds about a 1% stake in Anthropic, which positions him to be one of the biggest gainers among individual shareholders. In 2023, Menlo Ventures became one of the first venture firms to back Anthropic, when the developer was seen as an underdog lagging behind OpenAI and had barely any revenue to speak of. Menlo Ventures has invested more than $1 billion in Anthropic, including the $500 million check it used to lead Anthropic's Series Dthe venture firm's largest bet ever. Menlo's stake was worth $14 billion based on the most recent funding round, which equates to less than a 2% stake. Lightspeed Venture Partners, which first invested in Anthropic's Series D and participated in later rounds, also holds less than a 2% stake, another person familiar said. Other major venture shareholders in Anthropic include Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Altimeter, Coatue, and Greenoaks. Representatives for Menlo and Lightspeed declined to comment. "Contrarian investing is how you make money," Menlo partner Venky Ganesan said in a June interview about the firm's early investment in Anthropic. "It was a lonely moment; almost no one wanted to invest."