Anthropic’s IPO windfall: the early VC and angel winners lighting up at $965B
What's the story? Anthropic's S-1 and IPO run-up have lit up paper values for the lab's earliest venture and angel backers. At the last private mark of about $965 billion (Bloomberg / TechCrunch), several early stakes already sit in the multi-billion range — with PitchBook marking some even higher against a ~$1.5 trillion IPO discussion. Strategic Class N holders Amazon and Google are left out of this cut; the focus is the early VC and angel winners.
Jaan Tallinn — Skype co-founder; led Anthropic's Series A ($124M, 2021). Exact ownership is not public, but reporting has framed his early bet as one of the IPO's standout angel wins, with WSJ noting "billions" ahead of the listing.
Spark Capital (board seat via Yasmin Razavi ) — Led Series C (~$75M at roughly $4.6–5B). Bloomberg / TechCrunch put the stake near ~$7B at $965B; PitchBook, counting ~$777M across six investments, marks about ~$10.9B at a $1.5T discussion price. Spark is the only pure-play VC named in the S-1.
Menlo Ventures — Early backer and Series D lead; more than $1B invested, stake ~$14B at $965B (Bloomberg / TechCrunch). Separately, Turner Novak highlighted that three Menlo LPs are set to make $1B+ each from a ~$500M+ SPV Menlo raised at an ~$18B valuation without being allowed to show forward financials — with Menlo partner Matt Murphy recounting the LP meeting on The Peel. Source: Turner Novak on X (Peel episode context).
ICONIQ Capital — Led Series F; more than $6B in from 2025 at a $183B valuation; stake ~$17B at $965B (Bloomberg / TechCrunch).
Lightspeed Venture Partners — Led Series E (~$1B at $61.5B per Newcomer) and sits with Menlo / ICONIQ among Newcomer's biggest VC winners on the Anthropic cap table.
Eric Schmidt — Series A; about 1% ownership, nearly ~$10B at the $965B private mark (Bloomberg / TechCrunch).
Sound Ventures — Early Series C ($35M) plus roughly ~$400M later; TechCrunch describes the stake as now worth "billions."
Sources: TechCrunch · Bloomberg (Iconiq / Spark) · Bloomberg (Schmidt) · PitchBook · Newcomer · Business Insider (Spark / S-1) · Turner Novak / Peel · Dealroom Anthropic S-1 coverage: dealroom.co/news/165999. Paper values move with valuation; Bloomberg / TechCrunch figures above use ~$965B private; PitchBook's Spark mark uses a higher ~$1.5T discussion price.
