FTX Halts Sale of $500M Stake in AI Startup amid Recovery Efforts

FTX has halted the sale of its stake in Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company, that is valued at $500 million. It is one of the largest investments by the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, besides an investment of $1.5 billion in Genesis Digital.

According to people familiar with the matter who shared information with Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity, the investment firm Parella Weinberg Partners, which acts as an advisor to FTX, has informed bidders about the pause.

FTX’s Most-Valuable Asset

Prior to the pause, several companies had reportedly expressed interest in buying the stake thanks to the current boom in AI. According to an earlier report by Semafor, Perella Weinberg was planning to dispose of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of shares in Anthropic on behalf of FTX.

Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, Anthropic has surged in popularity due to the current AI boom, and the initial investment by FTX is believed to be more. Anthropic raised $450 million in a Series C funding round in May at a reported valuation of $4.6 million.

The company features an AI assistant that it claims can be used as a customer service agent or a sales representative. The AI chatbot rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT and can reportedly be instructed to perform various tasks, including answering questions.

FTX Asset Recovery Report

The postponement of the sale further delays efforts to recover an estimated $2 billion owed to FTX investors. In a report by Finance Magnates, FTX’s bankruptcy team tasked with recoveries said it had since recovered $7 billion out of the $8.7 billion owed to customers.

According to the investigative report by John Ray, the CEO of FTX leading the recovery of users' funds, $6.4 billion of the money FTX owes to its customers was identified to be in fiat currency and stablecoins, which were reportedly misappropriated.

Also detailed in the report were alleged investments in luxurious real estate in the Bahamas, political and charitable donations, speculative trading, venture investments, and acquisitions by the former FTX executives. FTX is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings in Delaware, while its Founder Sam Bankman-Fried is facing criminal charges.