FTX has halted the sale of its stake in AI startup Anthropic, one of its most desirable assets.

 

FTX has halted the sale of its stake in AI startup Anthropic, one of its most desirable assets.  At the time of its bankruptcy filing in November, FTX held $500M worth of Anthropic stock. The crypto exchange aimed to sell its stake in Anthropic for a significant amount, given the current AI hype and Anthropic's reported valuation of $4.6B according to Semafor. FTX and Alameda, its sister hedge fund, had invested $500M in Anthropic, representing one of FTX's major investments. Earlier this month, Semafor reported that FTX was seeking to sell its shares for "hundreds of millions of dollars." Perella Weinberg Partners, FTX's advisor, informed potential buyers about the pause this month despite multiple interested buyers. Selling the stake could greatly assist FTX's recovery following the recent disclosure of the misappropriation of $8.7B in user funds, of which ~$7B has been recovered. Anthropic, an AI startup founded by former OpenAI staffers in 2021, announced a substantial $450M funding round last month. The OpenAI competitor, known for its chatbot Claude, has now raised more than $1.5B, making it among the highest-funded AI startups.