Prosecutors ask judge to block Sam Bankman-Fried's $500 million investment in Anthropic

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Prosecutors ask judge to block Sam Bankman-Fried's $500 million investment in Anthropic

Prosecutors have asked the judge overseeing Sam Bankman-Fried's trial to stop the FTX founder's lawyers from referencing his $500 million investment in Anthropic.

The AI startup was established in 2021 and has received a surge of investment since the sector has surged in value over the last few years. Anthropic was valued at $4.6 billion in June, according to Semafor, and FTX's stake was worth nine-figures.

Since then, its value has only risen a lot. After Amazon agreed to invest $4 billion, Anthropic is in discussions with Google and other firms for further investments that could see it valued at 30 billion, according to The Information.

Bankman-Fried's investment could be a significant assistance in reimbursing the thousands of FTX customers who lost their money last November due to the cryptocurrency exchange's collapse.

Williams wrote a letter to the president in response to the request on Sunday.

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to seven charges including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Gary Wang, FTX cofounder, testified last Friday that the FTX sister hedge fund, Alameda, had a $65 billion line of credit with the crypto exchange. It would mean it could spend huge amounts by drawing on customers' deposits.

Bankman-Fried spent about $5 billion on 300 separate investments over three years, Lewis said.

Bankman-Fried's spokeswoman did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, sent outside the US working hours.