Amazon's $13 Billion AI Bet Is Now Worth $190 Billion. Here's Why That Matters.

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has world-class cloud computing and online retail businesses, but its investment in Anthropic is fast becoming one of its greatest assets. Amazon has invested $13 billion in the artificial intelligence start-up, but in its most recent regulatory filing, Amazon now values that investment at a whopping $190.4 billion.

That’s a 14.6x gain in Amazon’s stake, and it helped Amazon record $62.64 billion in net income for the second quarter, as Amazon was able to claim paper profits of $53.39 billion in non-operating income on its balance sheet.

But the bigger story isn’t about Amazon’s accounting ledger. It's what the revaluation of Amazon’s investment says about Anthropic’s fast-growing value, and what that could mean for Amazon stock down the road.

Image source: Amazon.

Amazon’s current stake in Anthropic

First, let’s look at the raw numbers. Amazon made an $8 billion investment in Anthropic in 2024, and followed that up this year with another $5 billion investment. Amazon reportedly has a 21% stake in the maker of Claude.

At the end of the first quarter, Amazon disclosed that its Anthropic stake had grown to $74.2 billion -- $42.2 billion in convertible notes and $32 billion in nonvoting preferred stock. Based on Amazon’s reported 21% ownership, that implies Anthropic’s value at the time was about $353 billion.

However, Anthropic is growing fast. In late May, Anthropic raised $65 billion in a fundraising round, valuing the company at $965 billion. It has also filed a confidential draft S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission -- the first step to filing an IPO. So, when Anthropic does go public, it could raise its value even higher.

Now let’s turn back to Amazon. Its second-quarter filing shows that Amazon’s stake in Anthropic grew dramatically: convertible notes are now valued at $97.9 billion, and nonvoting preferred stock is valued at $92.5 billion, giving Amazon a total stake of $190.4 billion.

Clearly, Anthropic is becoming much more valuable, particularly as strong demand for its Claude AI is driving rapid revenue growth. Its list of AI enterprise customers includes Cognizant Technology Solutions, which rolled out the Claude model to its 350,000 employees, as well as IBM and Deloitte.

Anthropic is growing so quickly that it now has a $1.2 trillion valuation on secondary markets. If that’s the case, then Amazon’s stake could be worth up to $252 billion.

Why the Anthropic value matters

After a 20% jump following its earnings report, Amazon currently has a market capitalization of about $3 trillion. And make no mistake -- its businesses are doing exceptionally well. Revenue in the second quarter topped $200.6 billion, with its North America segment growing 16% to $116.2 billion and its International segment jumping 15% to $42.2 billion.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue soared by 37%, generating operating income of $16.6 billion, and Amazon increased its projected capex for the year from $200 billion to $220 billion as it continues to build out its industry-leading cloud computing division.

Anthropic will also be a key customer for Amazon, which obtained more than $100 billion in commitments from the AI start-up over the next decade. Amazon will provide up to 5 gigawatts of capacity for Anthropic to train and run Claude, and will provide an updated version of its Trainium AI chips and CPUs.

Regardless of when -- or if -- Anthropic finally goes public, Amazon will continue to benefit. The value of its equity stake should appreciate, and Anthropic will be a valued Amazon customer.

That’s tremendous value for Amazon’s $13 billion investment -- and in all likelihood, it will just continue to grow.

Patrick Sanders has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and International Business Machines. The Motley Fool recommends Cognizant Technology Solutions. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.