The New York Times, back in March last year (gift link):
To win the artificial intelligence race, Google not only has
developed its own technologies, but has also pumped
money into prominent A.I. start-ups. And to preserve its
competitive edge, Google has kept its ownership stakes in those
start-ups a secret.Court documents recently obtained by The New York Times reveal
Google’s stake in one of those start-ups, Anthropic, as well as
how its investment in the young company is set to change. Google
owns 14 percent of Anthropic, according to legal filings that the
A.I. start-up submitted as part of a Google antitrust case. But
that investment gives Google little control over the company. The
internet giant can own only up to 15 percent of Anthropic,
according to the filings, and Google holds no voting rights, no
board seats and no board observer rights at the start-up.Still, Google is set to invest an additional $750 million in
Anthropic in September through a type of loan known as convertible
debt, according to the filings. The companies agreed to the
convertible note in 2023. In total, Google has invested more than
$3 billion in the A.I. company.
Anthropic’s latest funding round — a rare Series G — valued the company at $380 billion. So let’s say Google has invested $4 billion to date, and Anthropic really is worth $380 billion. Google’s slice of that would be worth a little north of $50 billion, quite the return on investment. And competitively, there’s a heads-they-win (with Gemini), tails-they-don’t-lose (with Claude) aspect. Maybe that’s not the best metaphor, since OpenAI would make it a three-sided coin, but still.
(Via today’s subscriber-only Stratechery update, where Ben Thompson noted this in the context of Google last week reporting a 30% increase in operating profit year-over-year, but an eye-popping 81% increase in overall profit. The difference was the growth in their investments, almost certainly Anthropic in particular.)
