500 million invested, 1.3 billion sold at a loss; currently valued at 77.2 billion. The AI trump card once backed by SBF could now "cover" ten times the FTX deficit.

BlockBeats news, June 8 — As SBF officially submitted a pardon application to U.S. President Trump today, a set of numbers continues to sting all those in the know outside prison: the ticket he bought with customer funds on the eve of the AI boom is now worth about $77.2 billion, nearly 10 times the amount involved in the FTX collapse.

In April 2022, “large language model” was still a niche term in academic circles. SBF, through Alameda Research, led Anthropic’s Series B round with a $500 million investment, taking 86% of that round and acquiring about 8% equity. At that time, Anthropic’s valuation was only $2.5 billion. Seven months later, FTX collapsed.

The actions of the takeover legal team now appear to have been a brutally costly firesale. In 2024, the bankruptcy liquidators sold this stake in two batches, cashing in about $1.3 billion in total. Buyers included Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and SBF’s former employer Jane Street—a rather ironic detail: the quant giant who once trained him now took over assets he bought with illegal funds, and at a throwaway price.

Soon after, the AI wave completely rewrote valuation logic. In May 2026, Anthropic closed a $6.5 billion Series H round led by Altimeter, Sequoia and others, raising its valuation to $965 billion, surpassing OpenAI for the first time and approaching the trillion-dollar mark. By this calculation, the 8% stake from back then is now worth about $77.2 billion—59 times the actual sale price of $1.3 billion and nearly 10 times FTX’s $8 billion shortfall at the time.

SBF himself has not remained silent. He once posted on X blasting the administrators: “The lawyers in charge of the bankruptcy said Anthropic was worthless, then sold the stake for $1.3 billion. FTX was never actually bankrupt—the lawyers filed a fake bankruptcy just four hours after taking over so they could enrich themselves.”

The $8 billion hole and the $77.2 billion missed opportunity both essentially stem from the same person and the same period’s decisions—the former was the price of squandering customer funds, while the latter was the windfall of catching an era’s tailwind amidst chaos. He picked the right track, but used the wrong money—losing due to a collapse in compliance, not poor judgment.