Judge approves FTX plan to sell $1B stake in AI startup Anthropic

Quick Take

  • Judge John Dorsey of the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware approved FTX’s motion to begin the sale process after hearing from creditors on whether or not the sale should be approved. 
  • FTX’s 8% stake in Anthropic could fetch a price of over $1 billion at the AI company’s latest reported valuation. 

A U.S. bankruptcy judge approved crypto exchange FTX's move to sell its stake in AI startup Anthropic during a hearing on Thursday. Doing so will help the collapsed exchange's creditors get closer to being made whole. 

Judge John Dorsey of the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware approved the motion to sell after hearing from creditors on whether or not the sale process should be approved. 

Earlier this month, FTX filed for permission to sell its nearly 8 percent stake in Anthropic, into which its jailed former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried had invested $500 million in 2021.

The judge heard some opposition from David Adler, claiming to represent some of FTX's creditors over concerns that their rights are preserved. This issue was later resolved by tweaking the order to include language about creditors' rights.

"We're selling the Anthropic shares as we are selling everything and putting the money in the bank, " said Andrew Dietderich, a lawyer representing FTX, during the hearing. "There is no difference I would think between Mr. Adler's clients' entitlement as such exists to the proceeds and the disposition of Anthropic and the disposition of any other property interested in the estate, all of which are going into blended unsegregated accounts." 

Judge Dorsey ultimately said the proposed order was "appropriate."

The value behind Anthropic

Anthropic's latest reported valuation was as high as $18 billion in December 2023, which would give FTX's stake a value of around $1.4 billion. The value of the Anthropic shares has proved to be a considerable hope for victims of the FTX collapse, and FTX anticipates that the company has enough funds to pay all customer and creditor claims in full. 

FTX previously said it planned to work with Anthropic to sell the shares, arguing that a sale was "good and sound business," while noting that the value of the shares had changed significantly. FTX also filed to speed up the approval process to sell the Anthropic stake. 

"In addition, the market for equities of early-stage technology companies, especially those focused on artificial intelligence, can be volatile, and the value of the Anthropic Shares has changed significantly since the Petition Date," FTX said in its filing earlier this month. "The Debtors may face stringent time constraints in order to capitalize when the value of and demand for the Anthropic Shares is high such that filing individual motions with the associated notice period would not be practicable."


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Sarah is a reporter at The Block covering policy, regulation and legal happenings. Before, Sarah was a reporter with CQ Legal writing about securities regulation, which is where she first started reporting on crypto. Sarah has also written for The Bond Buyer and American Banker, among other finance-related publications. She graduated from the University of Missouri and earned a degree in print and digital journalism. Sarah is based in Washington D.C., and is an avid coffee lover. You can follow her on Twitter @ForTheWynn.

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