Zoom's early Anthropic bet delivers $1 billion gain as AI startup eyes $900 billion valuation

Zoom's Anthropic investment has netted the company $1 billion - The Economic Times

The total value of Zoom's stake in the rapidly ascendant AI company is worth about $1.27 billion, according to a regulatory filing Friday. That value is primed to increase further as Anthropic nears the completion of another funding round as soon as next week.Zoom Communications Inc., the videoconferencing company, has netted about $1 billion on an investment it made in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic PBC in early 2023. The total value of Zoom's stake in the rapidly ascendant AI company is worth about $1.27 billion, according to a regulatory filing Friday. That value is primed to increase further as Anthropic nears the completion of another funding round as soon as next week. The holding has been on an exponential climb since early 2023, when Zoom invested in the startup as part of a partnership to use Anthropic's Claude models. Zoom has been making a push to add more artificial intelligence features, such as a workplace AI assistant. Since the investment, Anthropic has become one of the world's fastest-growing and most closely watched companies. Zoom's current assessment of its stake in Anthropic is based on a February round which valued the company at $380 billion. Bloomberg has reported that Anthropic is close to finalizing a round at a valuation above $900 billion. Zoom disclosed $51 million in new strategic investments in early 2023, when it announced the Anthropic partnership, though didn't specify whether this full sum was for Anthropic. The company also invested an additional $46 million in Anthropic in recent months, it disclosed in the Friday filing. "A timely investment in a financial rocket ship" has helped boost Zoom's share price in recent weeks, KeyBanc analyst Jackson Ader said in a note after Zoom's quarterly earnings report Thursday. The software company posted results that helped boost Wall Street's confidence in its expanded suite of products.

Zoom secures $1B return on 2023 Anthropic investment ahead of new funding round By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Zoom Video Communications Inc (NASDAQ:ZM) has secured a financial return exceeding $1 billion from its early backing of artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, according to a regulatory filing made on Friday that was originally reported by Bloomberg. The value of Zoom's initial investment of approximately $51 million, executed in May 2023 through its Zoom Ventures arm, has reached nearly $1.3 billion. The strategic stake was originally positioned to integrate Anthropic's Claude large language models into Zoom's federated AI architecture. The valuation of this minority holding stands to expand further as Anthropic prepares to finalize a new funding round as early as next week. Bloomberg reports that Anthropic is seeking to raise up to $30 billion at a total company valuation of $900 billion, with Sequoia Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Altimeter Capital, and Greenoaks Capital Partners expected to co-lead the round with $2 billion contributions each. Existing backers, including Founders Fund and General Catalyst, are also slated to participate. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently stated the startup experienced an 80-fold growth in usage and annualized revenue during the first quarter, driving aggressive efforts to acquire more computing power. The windfall coincides with Zoom's strong first-quarter financial results released after-hours on Thursday, which exceeded consensus expectations. Zoom reported first-quarter revenue of $1.24 billion, representing a 5.5% increase year-over-year, while adjusted earnings climbed to $1.55 per share against $1.43 per share in the prior-year period. Following the upbeat performance, Zoom management upwardly revised its full-year guidance, projecting adjusted earnings between $5.96 and $6.00 per share on total revenues ranging from $5.08 billion to $5.09 billion. The enterprise software provider also authorized a new $1 billion share buyback program. In response to the earnings beat and the appreciating Anthropic asset, multiple Wall Street brokerages adjusted their Zoom price targets upward on Friday. Morgan Stanley lifted its target to $105 from $92, Rosenblatt increased its outlook to $130 from $115, and Benchmark adjusted its figure to $125 from $121, with all three firms maintaining positive ratings.