By Omor Ibne Ehsan
Publication Date: 2026-10-20 14:10:00
A personal check Eric Schmidt wrote in 2021 may have quietly become one of the most valuable private stakes in artificial intelligence, and the number attached to it grows larger every time Anthropic sets a new valuation.
A check Google’s former chief executive wrote in 2021 may now be one of the most valuable personal stakes in the AI industry. Eric Schmidt owns about 1% of Anthropic, people familiar with the matter said on Monday, October 19, 2026. Neither Schmidt nor Anthropic has confirmed the figure.
The stake dates to a “tens-of-millions-of-dollars investment” in Anthropic’s Series A, when the company was valued at $461 million. At Anthropic’s most recent valuation of $965 billion, the stake could be worth about $10 billion. Nobody outside his circle knows whether he has sold any of it.
Investors in Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG | GOOG Price Prediction, NASDAQ:GOOGL), where Schmidt was CEO, treated the report as a minor development. Shares rose 1.05% to close at $344.18,…
