Alphabet carries its stake in Anthropic at $124.3 billion, a figure tied to the AI company's last funding round. Anthropic has reportedly pushed its IPO to November and is said to be targeting a $2 trillion valuation, which could roughly double that carrying value on paper. The change would flow through Alphabet's income statement, but it wouldn't add cash unless Alphabet sells shares, and it wouldn't raise revenue or operating profit.
Alphabet's July quarterly filing put the value of its private-company holdings at $124.3 billion, a figure the company said "primarily" reflects one investment. Alphabet didn't name the company, but Bloomberg reported it is Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude models. Anthropic, meanwhile, is reportedly seeking a $2 trillion valuation in a November listing. Those two numbers measure different things: one is Alphabet's slice at the last price investors paid for Anthropic shares, the other would be a price tag for the whole company's valuation.
The carrying value moves in steps
Alphabet holds the stake at cost, adjusted when an outside transaction sets a new price for similar shares. The same bucket of private holdings was carried at $35.2 billion at the end of 2024 and $64.1 billion at the end of 2025, a bucket that also held Alphabet's SpaceX stake until that company's market debut earlier this year. The Anthropic portion of the latest figure dates to late May, when Anthropic closed a $65 billion funding round at a $965 billion valuation. Alphabet's total cost basis across that bucket is $47.6 billion — the rest is markup from other investors' funding rounds.
What a November listing would change
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sept. 18 that Anthropic delayed its IPO from October to November, a delay some of its advisors wanted so investors could see third-quarter results first. Investors reportedly expect the company to seek roughly a $2 trillion valuation and raise up to $100 billion, though these remain expectations rather than commitments. A $2 trillion price would be roughly double the $965 billion behind the current figure, so the stake Alphabet carries near $124 billion could be marked at about twice that. Once Anthropic's stock has a market price, the stake would shift into marketable securities and get repriced each quarter, the same move Alphabet's SpaceX shares made after that company's IPO.
Paper gains, not cash
Alphabet's second quarter already showed what these markups can do to results: revenue rose 24% year over year to $119.8 billion, while net income soared 298% and earnings per share nearly quadrupled to $9.11, largely on a $98 billion net gain in other income tied mostly to unrealized markups on equity securities. A November listing near the reported target could bring another gain through that same line, arguably a larger one, but it wouldn't add cash unless Alphabet sells shares, and it wouldn't lift revenue or operating income. The moves cut both ways, too: a rough quarter for Anthropic's stock after its debut would show up as a loss on Alphabet's books.
At its current carrying value, the stake is a small slice of Alphabet's overall market cap. It equals roughly 3% of the company's $4.1 trillion total. The stock traded around $338 as of the report, putting its price-to-earnings ratio on next year's expected earnings at about 23.
Source: The Motley Fool
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
