Crypto Exchange FTX Will Sell Shares of AI Startup Anthropic

Liputan6.com, Jakarta – Bankrupt crypto exchange, FTX, will sell its shares in startups artificial intelligence (AI) Anthropic according to a US judge's decision on Thursday, February 22, 2024.

US Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey in Wilmington, Delaware approved FTX's proposal to sell the shares after FTX reached a compromise in court with a group of FTX customers who opposed the sale.

FTX invested USD 500 million or the equivalent of IDR 7.7 trillion (assuming an exchange rate of IDR 15,594 per US dollar) in Anthropic in 2021, and currently holds a 7.84 percent stake in the company, according to court documents.

The company has asked for permission to sell the shares as part of a court-supervised effort to liquidate its assets and repay customers who lost access to their accounts when the company goes bankrupt in 2022.

“We sold Anthropic shares, because we sold everything, and put the money in the bank,” said FTX lawyer Andy Dietderich at the court hearing, quoted from Yahoo Finance, Friday (23/2/2024).

FTX expects to sell its shares at a profit, and will maintain the flexibility to sell its shares at the most optimal and appropriate time, according to court documents.

FTX's investment in 2021 initially gave it a 13.56% equity stake in Anthropic. FTX shares have been diluted by the company's subsequent fundraising, which included a $4 billion investment from Amazon.com.

Customers who opposed the sale argued that FTX did not actually own Anthropic shares, because they were purchased with funds embezzled from FTX customer deposits.

But they agreed Thursday to allow sales to proceed, as long as they were allowed to argue later that FTX customers own the money generated from future sales.

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