Amazon stands to gain more from Anthropic’s public listing than the venture firms that backed the AI company early, according to details in Anthropic’s S-1 registration and Amazon’s own filings. Convertible notes Amazon holds—debt that turns into shares at an IPO or sale—were valued at $97.9 billion as of 30 June, even though only $6.2 billion of principal was outstanding. That principal is Anthropic’s entire reported debt load.
Anthropic’s private valuation has reached $965 billion. At that scale, a 1% holding is worth nearly $10 billion, which helps explain why large absolute payoffs for venture investors still look small as percentages. Firms including Menlo Ventures, Sequoia, Sound Ventures and Spark Capital are expected to see billion-dollar returns, yet none of them appears at or above the 5% threshold used for the principal stockholders’ table in the S-1—an unusual pattern for a typical tech IPO, where lead venture backers often hold double-digit stakes. Menlo’s position of roughly $14 billion, for example, is only about 1.5% of the company on recently reported figures.
How Amazon’s stake was built
Amazon first committed to invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic in 2023. Much of the later money was structured as convertible notes rather than ordinary stock taken upfront. From 2023 through 2025, Amazon put about $8 billion into those notes. In the second quarter, it added $10 billion in nonvoting preferred stock—$5 billion in each of Anthropic’s last two funding rounds—bringing its total investment to roughly $18 billion.
As Anthropic’s valuation climbed, the shares those notes will convert into became far more valuable. Anthropic recorded the rising liability on its income statement under a line covering changes in the fair value of convertible notes, derivative liabilities and SAFEs. That line totalled $72.4 billion for the first half of 2026. The charge is non-cash: no cash left the company when the accounting entry was made.
The S-1 says Amazon’s notes could convert into as many as 1.84 billion shares. A cap, however, limits Amazon to 12% of Anthropic’s “partially diluted” share count—a measure that includes some shares not yet issued, such as options. Amazon can waive that cap. Notes that cannot convert in one go would stay outstanding and convert in later quarters under the same limit.
Cloud deals beyond the equity
Equity is only part of the commercial picture. Anthropic has committed to spend at least $110 billion on Amazon Web Services (AWS)—Amazon’s cloud computing arm—over the next 10 years. Google is also positioned for gains from both the listing and cloud work: court filings showed it held about 14% of Anthropic as of early last year, and it invested a further $10 billion in April. Analyst Harrison Rolfes has estimated Google’s current stake at closer to 5.6% after large later rounds. Google has also secured at least $114 billion in cloud commitments from Anthropic through 2033.
The S-1 itself warns that some of these cloud providers also build rival AI models and may not always share Anthropic’s interests—an important tension for customers and regulators watching who controls frontier AI infrastructure.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- 2023: Amazon first backs Anthropic with a commitment to invest up to $4 billion.
- 2023–2025: Amazon invests about $8 billion via convertible notes.
- Early last year: Court filings show Google holding about 14% of Anthropic.
- April: Google invests a further $10 billion.
- Second quarter (to 30 June): Amazon invests $10 billion in nonvoting preferred stock; notes show $6.2 billion principal and a $97.9 billion fair value; Anthropic books a $72.4 billion first-half fair-value charge.
- Through 2033 / next decade: Anthropic’s cloud spend pledges include at least $110 billion on AWS over 10 years and at least $114 billion with Google through 2033.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Anthropic naam ki AI company jald stock market mein list hone wali hai. Amazon ne is mein lagbhag 18 arab dollar lagaye hain, aur us ke convertible notes ki qeemat June tak 97.9 arab dollar batayi gayi. Venture firms ko bhi fayda hoga, lekin percentage hisse Amazon aur Google jaisi bari tech companies ke muqable chhote hain. Aam logon ke liye yeh is liye zaroori hai ke yehi companies AI models aur cloud services chalati hain jin par apps aur online tools depend karte hain.
