AI startup Anthropic has received $300 million from Google Cloud after the failure of FTX. The Financial Times was the first to report this. Despite the lack of specific details about the amount of investment, the Anthropic team confirmed that Google Cloud is being used to train their AI systems, such as Claude.
Anthropic said the financing was received from Sam Bankman-Fried and former Alameda Research chief executive Caroline Allison.
Crunchbase states that the investment was made by Bankman-Fried in April 2022. The New York Times reported that the startup received a sum of $580 million, with $530 million coming from Bankman-Fried's personal connections. Many consider this amount too low. On Twitter, one FTX creditor posted a tweet claiming that Bankman-Fried owns $1.1 billion in Anthropic. This sparked a discussion in the comments section about whether the Bankman-Fried share would be used to pay off the large debt that FTX has accumulated as a result of recent problems.
As part of the collaboration, Anthropic will use Google Cloud's GPU and TPU clusters to train, develop and provide its AI chatbox called 'Claude', comparable to ChatGTP. According to the Financial Times, Google Cloud has acquired about a 10 per cent stake in Anthropic.
It is not yet clear where most of the debts claimed in the FTX bankruptcy case will come from; Bankman-Fried has not accepted responsibility for all eight fraud and conspiracy charges brought against him on 3 January.
He is currently under house arrest at his parents' home in California until his court date, which is set for 2 October 2023.
