Anthropic's IPO windfall reaches US public pensions through Spark Capital, and LACERS already marks its 2021 Spark growth fund at 2.29x
What's the story? Public employee pension plans in Los Angeles, Orange County, Massachusetts and South Carolina stand to share in Anthropic's expected November IPO as limited partners in Spark Capital funds, according to an analysis of public filings by The Information (30 October). Spark, Anthropic's first venture backer, put about $777M into the company across six financings through at least three funds, purchases that are listed in Anthropic's S-1. The Information estimates Spark's stake could be worth $9B or more if the IPO prices near $1.5 trillion.
The LP numbers (from the pension's own report): The private equity report of the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System (LACERS) as of 31 December 2025, prepared by Aksia, shows Spark Capital Growth Fund IV (2021 vintage) with $33.3M committed, $30.7M paid in, no distributions yet and a fair value of $70.3M. That is a 2.29x TVPI and a 43.6% net IRR, up from a $47.8M value six months earlier. Growth Fund V (also $33.3M committed) stood at 1.13x. Across 11 active Spark funds, Spark is one of LACERS's ten largest private markets managers, at 2.36x TVPI and a 26.4% net IRR. These marks predate Anthropic's February 2026 Series G at $380B and its later private round at about $965B, and none of the gain has been paid out in cash.
What else is reported (The Information, not independently verified): Growth Fund IV backed Anthropic's 2023 and 2024 rounds and Growth Fund V three rounds in 2025 and 2026. Orange County ERS committed $33.3M to Growth IV and about $33M to Growth V. Massachusetts PRIM voted up to $42M for Spark Capital Growth VI (2026, $1.95B target), which put almost $440M into Anthropic's most recent private round, and South Carolina Retirement System is also an investor. Both are committing new money to Spark Capital IX.
Why it matters: US pensions have waited years for venture distributions, and LACERS's own report notes historically slow exits across private markets. Orange County ERS has seen this before: its $60M SpaceX investment from about eight years ago is now worth around $2B, Bloomberg reported in August. Caveats: proceeds estimates are gross, before fees and carry, the IPO price is not set and lock-ups will delay any cash.
Sources: The Information · LACERS private equity performance report, Q4 2025 (PDF) · Bloomberg via The Mercury News (OCERS and SpaceX) · Earlier Dealroom coverage of Anthropic's VC winners: dealroom.co/news/167083
