Amazon's $200 Billion Stake in AI Startup Anthropic

Amazon's stake in Anthropic could be worth over $200 billion if the AI startup's reported IPO valuation holds, according to recent reports. Anthropic plans to go public in October and has been valued at $965 billion after its latest funding round in May.

The company is targeting an IPO valuation of at least $1 trillion, which would make Amazon's 21% stake worth more than $210 billion. This massive unrealized gain could be a major catalyst for Amazon's stock, but investors should note that the gains have already been recorded incrementally under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in Amazon's statements.

Anthropic's expansion is directly supporting AWS growth, and a successful market debut would directly boost Amazon's net income. The company also requires Anthropic to use Amazon Web Services as its primary cloud infrastructure provider, generating billions of dollars for the e-commerce giant.