Written by Lin Bai, Crow Intelligence

Last week, Anthropic announced the completion of a $13 billion Series F funding round, surging its valuation to $183 billion.

As soon as the news broke, netizens immediately thought of a name: SBF. Some lamented that if he hadn't "got into trouble," this investment might have directly ranked among the "top five best investments of all time."

Who is SBF? A post-90s kid who shot to fame in the cryptocurrency world. In just three years, he went from obscure to king of the cryptocurrency world. At his peak, his net worth reached $26 billion, firmly placing him among the top 50 richest people in the United States.

In 2021, when AI was far less popular than it is today, SBF suddenly entered the AI track, invested $500 million in Anthropic, and directly acquired 8% of the equity.

Today, this is the legendary story that Silicon Valley loves to brag about: "A genius boy bet on the future."

Unfortunately, fate has a penchant for dark humor. In 2022, the year of the AI boom, SBF's empire collapsed. All assets, including the Anthropic stake, were sold off by the liquidation team, ultimately fetching only $1.4 billion.

If held until now, based on Anthropic's latest valuation, the value of that 8% stake would be approximately US$14.6 billion (not necessarily that much considering equity dilution), which is even ten times the selling price.

This is the absurd drama of SBF. A post-90s cryptocurrency enthusiast, using other people's money, nearly created a legendary investment that would go down in history. Unfortunately, before he became a legend, he became a negative example.

$500 million, heavily invested in Anthropic

You may not have heard of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), but in the cryptocurrency world, he is a legend.

He was the boss of FTX, the world's third largest exchange at the time, and the company's valuation once soared to US$32 billion; he also controlled the hedge fund Alameda Research, whose book assets peaked at US$14.6 billion.

At the peak of his career, SBF's net worth reached 41st on the Forbes list of the richest Americans, and he was once on par with Silicon Valley tech giants.

If FTX is considered a "digital asset bank," then Alameda is more like a "fund company that both invests and trades cryptocurrencies." While it helps clients build cryptocurrency portfolios, it also invests its own capital in venture capital.

In 2021–2022, SBF suddenly shifted his focus from cryptocurrencies to the real world. He directed Alameda to borrow money and embarked on a large-scale venture capital investment, pouring money into non-cryptocurrency sectors—a bet on the future and a way to diversify his risk. Among these bets, Anthropic emerged as a standout.

In 2021, SBF made a bold move and used Alameda to lead Anthropic's Series B financing. In that round, Anthropic raised a total of US$580 million, of which Alameda alone invested US$500 million, accounting for nearly 8% of the shares.

Remember, back then, ChatGPT hadn't even made it to the mainstream, and AI wasn't nearly as popular as it is today. To outsiders, SBF's move was a gamble on the future.

What’s even better is that there is a bit of “idealism” behind this investment.

SBF considers itself a believer in Effective Altruism (EA). The logic of EA is that doing good deeds shouldn't be based solely on compassion; it must prioritize the input-output ratio. Simply put, with the same amount of money, it's best to save more lives and create greater social value.

Anthropic's positioning as a "safety-first" large-scale model laboratory, researching how to mitigate AI risks, resonated perfectly with the EA community's philosophies. Coupled with the fact that early investors included prominent EA figures like Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, the initiative seemed both idealistic and capitalistic.

In this way, SBF led Alameda to invest $500 million to build a huge computing power and research facilities for Anthropic.

"Fiat sale" of Anthropic, a small profit of $800 million

If the story ended here, it would simply be "the genius boy in the cryptocurrency circle bets on the right future."

But fate plays tricks on us. In November 2022, crypto media outlet CoinDesk broke the news about Alameda’s financial statements, revealing the secrets of the House of Cards:

Of the $14.6 billion in assets, one-third is FTT (FTX’s own token).

What does this mean? Alameda acquires FTT at a low price, then hoards it to inflate its market capitalization. It then uses these tokens as collateral to borrow money from FTX, and then uses the borrowed funds to make highly leveraged investments, effectively circulating the funds internally.

As soon as the news came out, the market sold off crazily, FTT plunged, Alameda and FTX collapsed one after another, and the SBF empire collapsed in an instant.

After entering liquidation, the primary asset targeted by FTX's creditors was Anthropic's equity. In 2023, with the entry of Google and Amazon, Anthropic's valuation skyrocketed, becoming the "golden chip" in FTX's portfolio.

The high demand for Anthropic even affected the sale of this stake. Due to the large number of buyers and the lengthy due diligence process, the sale was temporarily suspended.

It wasn’t until 2014 that FTX sold its Anthropic shares in two installments:

The first sale saw two-thirds of the shares sold, raising $884 million. Reportedly, 24 institutional investors subscribed to the shares, splitting the difference. The largest buyer was the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund.

The second time, FTX sold about one-third of its remaining holdings (about 15 million shares), cashing in $450 million and completely clearing its stake in Anthropic.

In other words, the FTX liquidation team recovered a total of nearly US$1.4 billion by selling Anthropic shares, almost three times what SBF invested that year.

Ironically, if these shares had been held until Anthropic's latest funding round in September 2025 (with a post-money valuation of $183 billion), the theoretical value of that 8% stake could have been as high as $14.6 billion, a profit of a full $14 billion. However, the reality is that the money has long since become "lifeline food" for the liquidation fund.

What’s even more dramatic is that this investment was later brought into SBF’s trial.

SBF's defense lawyer emphasized: SBF is not just a spendthrift. He invested in an AI company whose valuation later skyrocketed, which shows that he has foresight and business judgment.

But the prosecution directly hit back:

SBF’s money is not its own capital, but is “moved” from the pockets of FTX customers. Even if it makes a profit on paper, it cannot wash away the original sin of financial fraud, and it is even more impossible to package “intentional misappropriation” as “investment mistake”.

Finally, the U.S. prosecutors filed a motion in October 2023, which clearly stated:

"The defendant's use of client funds to invest in Anthropic is an extension of the criminal method, not evidence in its favor."

Ironically, it was this post-90s cryptocurrency enthusiast who nearly made the most successful AI investment in history. Unfortunately, he never lived to see that day.