Who is Eric Schmidt? Meet ex-Google CEO whose 1% Anthropic stake could push his fortune close to $80 billion
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is among the early investors in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, holding an approximately 1% stake in the company, according to a Bloomberg report. His investment, made when the company was valued at just $461 million in 2021, could translate into one of the biggest individual fortunes from Anthropic's anticipated initial public offering (IPO).
Schmidt invested tens of millions of dollars in Anthropic's Series A funding round, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss private information.
It remains unclear whether he has sold any portion of his original holding. Schmidt and Anthropic declined to comment, the report noted.
The potential gains could significantly increase the 71-year-old technology investor's wealth. Based on a possible Anthropic valuation of $2 trillion, his stake could add roughly one-third to his net worth, taking it close to $80 billion, according to Bloomberg's wealth index.
Even at Anthropic's more recent valuation of $965 billion, Schmidt's holding could be worth nearly $10 billion, adding substantially to his existing fortune of $57.5 billion.
Eric Emerson Schmidt is an American businessman, technology investor and former computer engineer best known for leading Google during a significant period of its expansion. He served as the company's chief executive officer from 2001 to 2011 before becoming its executive chairman, a position he held until 2015.
He subsequently served as executive chairman of Google's parent company Alphabet from 2015 to 2017 and remained a technical adviser to the company until 2020.
Born on April 27, 1955, in Falls Church, Virginia, Schmidt studied electrical engineering at Princeton University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree in 1976. He later completed a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science in 1979 and a PhD in the same field at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1982.
Beyond his corporate leadership roles, Schmidt has established himself as a prominent technology investor. His investments have been made through several platforms, including TomorrowVentures, Innovation Endeavors and his family office, Hillspire.
His earlier investment portfolio included consumer internet businesses, software companies and financial technology ventures. In recent years, artificial intelligence has become a central focus, with investments in companies such as Mistral AI, Reflection AI, World Labs and Anthropic.
Schmidt's early investment could prove particularly lucrative as Anthropic prepares for a potential stock market debut.
When he invested in the startup in 2021, Anthropic was valued at approximately $461 million, according to PitchBook data cited by Bloomberg. Investors have since indicated that a valuation between $1.8 trillion and $2 trillion could be possible for the company.
At the higher valuation, Anthropic would be worth more than 4,300 times its Series A valuation.
The potential returns could also surpass some of Schmidt's earlier successful investments. If Anthropic reaches a $2 trillion valuation, the gains from his stake would exceed the returns from Innovation Endeavors' early investment in Uber Technologies in 2011. Uber's valuation had increased approximately 1,400 times by the time it went public in 2019, reaching $82 billion.
Anthropic's anticipated IPO is expected to create substantial wealth for its founders, employees and early investors. The startup's seven co-founders were already worth approximately $8 billion each following its last funding round, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The company is also backed by major technology players, including Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia and Microsoft, alongside venture capital firms such as Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks and Sequoia Capital.
Garvit Bhirani is a journalist based in Gurugram. He is a Deputy Chief Content Producer at LiveMint, where he covers national and international news stories, focusing on accuracy and compelling storytelling for readers. <br><br> With a total of six years of experience in journalism, he has previously worked with Vaco Binary Semantics for Google, taking on the role of news curation lead, and reported from the field on health, education, and agriculture stories for 101reporters and News9. He has also served as a content editor for entertainment and news media organisations. <br><br> Garvit holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and mass communication from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and Gurugram University, respectively. During college days, he joined India’s only non-profit student journalism network, where he anchored daily news updates and produced his own weekly show called ‘Data Fix’. <br><br> He was selected for the YES Foundation Media for Social Change Fellowship in Delhi, the Talking Data to the Fourth Pillar residential workshop, and the VOICE Fellowship in Pune. <br><br> He holds certificates in COVID-19-verification reporting, data journalism, food & agriculture, tech policy, media literacy and countering misinformation, and tackling election disinformation courses from Thomson Foundation, IndiaSpend, The Dialogue, US Mission in India, and AFP. <br><br> He can be reached on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/garvit-bhirani">LinkedIn</a> or on <a href="https://x.com/GarvitBhirani">@garvitbhirani</a> on X
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