Eric Schmidt holds about 1% of Anthropic from his early bet

Eric Schmidt owns about 1% of Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude models, according to Bloomberg. The stake traces back to his investment in the company’s Series A round in 2021. A small slice of a very large pie Bloomberg reported the holding on October 19, 2026. Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and Alphabet, reportedly put tens of millions of dollars into Anthropic’s Series A. That round valued the company at $461 million. Anthropic reached a private valuation of $965 billion after a funding round in May 2026. Anthropic is preparing for an initial public offering, and investor sentiment points to a possible valuation somewhere between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion. If the higher figure materializes, Schmidt’s stake could deliver a windfall worth up to around $20 billion. His net worth was recently pegged at between $57.5 billion and $67.4 billion. A payday of that size could lift it by approximately a third. The road to Anthropic’s public debut The company is expected to begin formal IPO marketing in November 2026. Trading is anticipated to start before the end of the year. In the third quarter of 2026, Anthropic’s revenue jumped 45% quarter-over-quarter to $16.8 billion...