Talk about return on investment. Amazon’s bet on Anthropic This looks like a huge win, at least on paper.
The cloud giant revealed Friday that it holds $45.8 billion in convertible notes and $14.8 billion in non-voting preferred stock in the AI startup. Taken together, the figures show that AmazonAnthropic’s stake is now worth $60.6 billion.
Amazon has invested $8 billion in Anthropic since late 2023, indicating a seven-fold increase in value. If confirmed, it would be among the most lucrative strategic technology investments the company has ever disclosed.
The two companies have deep business ties. Anthropic has committed to purchasing 1 million Trainium chips from Amazon, closely tying one of the leading AI labs to Amazon Web Services.
Anthropic last raised $13 billion in September, for a post-funding valuation of $183 billion, following a $3.5 billion round in March that valued the company at $61.5 billion. The AI startup is in talks for another funding round that would take its value to 350 billion dollars.
Convertible notes held by Amazon are converted into preferred stock as Anthropic raises additional capital. So every time the startup closes a funding round, Amazon gets valuable new shares in one of the hottest AI companies on the planet.
Part of the increase has already been reflected in Amazon’s profits. Conversions in 2025 generated about $5.6 billion in recognized gains, and Amazon recorded an additional $7.2 billion upward adjustment to its “other income” in the third quarter as Anthropic’s valuation climbed.
An Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider that the value of the company’s Anthropic stake increased from $38.5 billion in the third quarter to $60.6 billion in the fourth. The company expects to record an additional $15 billion gain in “other income” in the first quarter as some securities are converted to non-voting preferred stock, the spokesperson added.
Amazon also revealed that these reviews were based on “significant judgment.” The company classified the convertible notes as “Level 3” assets, meaning their values are based on unobservable data and Amazon’s own assumptions rather than market prices, the company revealed.
This is common with stakes in startups, which do not hold securities that are regularly traded on liquid public markets. That’s what IPOs are for — and Anthropic is reportedly considering a listing this year.
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