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In May 2023, Spark Capital made the biggest investment in its history.
The venture-capital firm wrote an initial $75 million check to help fund Anthropic, then a little-known artificial intelligence startup trying to compete with OpenAI. Anthropic had no stock symbol, and it generated very little revenue. There was no Wall Street research report telling investors what it was worth.
Three years later, Spark’s stake is estimated to be worth $7 billion on paper.
Spark Capital only needed one Anthropic. History suggests investors often don’t need many, either.
