In the midst of all the drama at OpenAI, rumors have it that the artificial intelligence (AI) startup is now looking to merge with rival Anthropic. The discussions are essentially in the early phases of the project’s development.
Anthropic Merger with OpenAI
Following the firing of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the board of directors of OpenAI reportedly inquired about a possible merger with Dario Amodei, the co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, a rival in the large-language model development market. This information was reported by The Information.
Negotiating Amodei into becoming CEO of OpenAI was the goal. It’s still unclear, though, whether the merger proposal moved forward into meaningful talks. Amodei quickly turned down the CEO offer, citing his dedication to Anthropic, a startup that is in direct competition with OpenAI for researchers and clients. Claude, the chatbot from Anthropic, is a direct rival of ChatGPT from OpenAI.
Following Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s appointment of Sam Altman and Greg Brockman to head the new AI research team, an intriguing development occurred. Out of the 770 workers at OpenAI, 500 have reportedly expressed interest in working with Sam Altman and his group at Microsoft.
Anthropic has been growing steadily, and it just secured $2 billion in new funding from competitors of Microsoft, including Google and Amazon. With the new funding, the two-year-old company, known for its chatbot Claude, which takes on OpenAI’s ChatGPT, hopes to reach a valuation of $20 billion to $30 billion.
The Anthropic Connection of FTX
Prior to declaring bankruptcy in November of 2022, FTX had made a substantial $500 million investment in the AI startup Anthropic. Because of the tremendous increase in Anthropic’s valuations, the value of its investments has increased dramatically.
A full recovery for FTX customers could result from the potential increase in Anthropic’s valuation, according to the FTX 2.0 Coalition, which is made up of FTX creditors. FTX’s stake could be valued between $3 billion and $4.5 billion.
In the context of the cryptocurrency exchange’s bankruptcy proceedings, FTX may be able to “facilitate” a “100% recovery rate” in assets thanks to the recent funding infusion and the possible increase in the company’s valuation. The FTX bankruptcy restructuring team may need to wait until Anthropic makes its public debut before selling its stake, unless some extraordinary circumstances force an earlier transaction.
