The Wealth Feast Nears Realization: Anthropic Races Towards $2 Trillion IPO, Iconiq, GIC, and Sequoia to Share Huge Returns

According to The Zhihui Finance APP, sources reveal that when Iconiq made its initial investment in Anthropic PBC in 2025, the AI developer was already valued at $183 billion, making it one of the world's highest-valued tech startups and rapidly growing into an AI giant. However, even Iconiq’s late-stage bet is now expected to generate massive returns as Anthropic approaches its Wall Street debut.

Insiders say Iconiq has invested over $6 billion in Anthropic; based on Anthropic’s most recent private market valuation of $96.5 billion, Iconiq’s stake is now worth about $17 billion. This represents the largest deal in Iconiq’s history. Should Anthropic succeed in achieving an IPO valuation as high as $200 billion—as some anticipate—the value of Iconiq’s investment could double.

The upcoming public listing of Anthropic is set to deliver billions of dollars in gains to top venture capital firms, tech companies, and independent investors who have backed the developer of the Claude chatbot since its founding in 2021. The list of winners includes both visionary early supporters and those who entered later but have benefited from the company’s soaring valuation and rapid rise over the past year.

Sources report that Spark Capital is the only known VC firm with a board seat at Anthropic, having invested $75 million in the company in 2023—its biggest check ever. At current valuations, Spark’s holdings are worth $7 billion.

Another source reveals that the low-key firm Sound Ventures, founded by agent Guy Oseary and actor Ashton Kutcher, participated in the same round with a $35 million investment at a $5 billion valuation, and has since cumulatively invested $400 million in follow-on rounds. The value of its stake now stands at several billion dollars. The firm is currently managed by Oseary and managing partner Effie Epstein, with Kutcher stepping down earlier this year.

By contrast, well-known VC firm Sequoia Capital, which bet early on OpenAI, only wrote its first check to Anthropic earlier this year. However, insiders say Sequoia has invested $3 billion in the startup, securing about a 1% stake—laying the groundwork for significant returns.

Sources also state that Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC has invested over $4.5 billion in Anthropic since its initial investment last year, now also holding around a 1% stake. In August, Anthropic formed a strategic partnership with GIC and Macquarie Asset Management to build data centers together.

Anthropic, Sequoia, Iconiq, Sound, and GIC all declined to comment. Spark did not respond to requests for comment.

Anthropic is expected to publicly file for its IPO within days, officially launching what could become a rare wealth-creating event—boosting the net worth of the company’s seven billionaire co-founders and turning many among its several thousand employees into millionaires. The IPO’s wealth effect may also reverberate throughout the tech and venture capital ecosystem, providing fresh fuel for future AI investments amid growing concerns of an AI bubble.

Like its chief rival OpenAI, Anthropic has raised funds from multiple channels to support its expensive investments in chips, data centers, and talent, all to build better AI models and support the expanding adoption of its technology. Some of Anthropic’s largest suppliers—including Google under Alphabet, Amazon, and Nvidia—have each invested billions of dollars in the startup. These deals once prompted concerns about circular financing arrangements fueling the AI boom, but now stand to bring handsome returns to the big tech companies involved.

However, in its early days, Anthropic was mainly supported by wealthy angel investors such as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the infamous FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Earlier reports indicated that Schmidt holds about a 1% stake in Anthropic, potentially making him one of the top individual shareholders in terms of gains.

In 2023, Menlo Ventures became one of the first VC firms to back Anthropic. At the time, this developer was considered a laggard to OpenAI and had virtually no revenue to speak of. Menlo Ventures has invested over $1 billion in Anthropic, including a $500 million lead investment in Anthropic’s Series D—its biggest bet ever.

Previous reports calculated Menlo’s stake to be worth $14 billion based on the latest funding round. Sources say this amounts to less than a 2% holding. Another insider notes that Lightspeed Venture Partners first invested in Anthropic’s Series D and participated in follow-on rounds; its stake is now also less than 2%. Other major venture shareholders in Anthropic include Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Altimeter, Coatue, and Greenoaks.

Representatives for Menlo and Lightspeed both 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. "That was a lonely moment; almost no one wanted to invest."