Anthropic's IPO registration filing, submitted October 26, says the US government sold a block of shares linked to FTX for $627 million. The proceeds went to FTX's bankruptcy estate to repay creditors, while the identities of the nine investors who bought the shares remain undisclosed. At Anthropic's stated valuation of $1.5 trillion, the block would be worth about $3.94 billion—a substantial gap from the sale price.
The transaction connects FTX's bankruptcy proceedings and criminal forfeitures with Anthropic's progress toward a public listing. For FTX creditors, the sale provides funds for repayment. For investors tracking Anthropic's ownership and valuation, the filing offers a reference point, but does not identify the buyers or disclose how many shares each acquired.
Shares traced to Ellison and Singh
The shares were originally associated with former FTX executives Caroline Ellison and Nishad Singh. In 2022, the pair invested $50 million in Anthropic, then an early-stage artificial intelligence company. Ellison led Alameda Research, FTX's affiliated trading firm, while Singh was an FTX executive.
FTX collapsed months later. Ellison and Singh pleaded guilty and testified in the case against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence.
A court later ordered the forfeiture of their Anthropic shares as proceeds of crime, transferring them to the US government. The government had obtained the shares by April 2025 at the latest and subsequently sold them. The disclosed $627 million went to the FTX bankruptcy estate, not directly to the former holders.
S-1 details the block, not its buyers
An S-1 is the registration statement a company files before offering shares to the public. Anthropic's filing does not name Ellison or Singh. Instead, it describes the shares as having been forfeited by their former holders in legal proceedings in which the company was not involved.
The filing identifies the block as 4,453,900 Series B shares. It sets out the share count and the circumstances under which the government came to hold them, but does not name the nine buyers or specify their individual allocations. The disclosed details confirm the sale, the destination of the proceeds and the number of investors, but do not reveal whether the buyers were institutions or individuals.
At a $1.5 trillion valuation, the shares would be worth about $3.94 billion, well above the $627 million sale proceeds. That figure reflects the valuation scenario stated in the filing; it is not the shares' transaction price and does not establish that the buyers have realized a gain. For creditors, the disclosed amount available to the bankruptcy estate is $627 million. The identities and holdings of the nine investors remain unknown.