The troubled crypto exchange FTX has asked the court for permission to sell its shares in Anthropic, a leading AI company, to repay its customers and creditors.
According to court documents, FTX owns a 7.84% stake in Anthropic, worth about $1.4 billion based on the AI company’s current valuation of $18 billion. This is the most valuable asset that FTX still holds after filing for bankruptcy in 2022.
FTX’s former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, was one of the early investors in Anthropic, putting $500 million into the AI startup in October 2021.
FTX Urges For A Speedy Sale Process
FTX, now led by CEO John Ray III, has requested the court to expedite the sale process of its Anthropic shares, hoping to hold a hearing on Feb 22, following an objections deadline on Feb 15.
The crypto exchange has proposed two options for selling its stake: an auction or a private sale. However, FTX has not disclosed the minimum price it expects to get for its shares, stating:
The public disclosure of the Reference Price could be detrimental to the Debtors’ goal of obtaining higher and better offers for the Anthropic Shares.
Anthropic is a US-based AI company founded by former OpenAI researchers. It is a public benefit corporation that aims to align AI with human values and ethics. Anthropic has attracted funding from prominent figures such as Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Vitalik Buterin.
FTX hopes that selling its Anthropic stake can generate enough funds to cover all the claims from its customers and creditors, who suffered losses due to the exchange’s collapse in 2022. FTX was one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world before it went bankrupt due to a series of hacks, lawsuits, and regulatory actions.
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