Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis was reportedly one of the early investors in AI startup Anthropic, according to a report by the Financial Times. The report said Hassabis made an angel investment in the company before it became one of the fastest-growing names in the artificial intelligence industry.
Anthropic is currently in preliminary discussions to raise at least $30 billion in fresh funding, which could push its valuation beyond $900 billion. If that happens, the company could surpass OpenAI, which is currently valued at around $852 billion.
The report also highlighted Hassabis’s growing influence across the AI sector. Since 2021, former researchers from Google DeepMind have launched more than a dozen AI startups that together have secured at least $14 billion in funding, based on data from PitchBook and Dealroom cited by FT.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei reportedly views Hassabis as a major inspiration. Separately, Google has invested billions into Anthropic through cloud computing and AI partnership deals.
FT further reported that Hassabis has supported several startups founded by former colleagues, including Inflection AI, launched by DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, and Ineffable Intelligence, founded by longtime collaborator David Silver.
At the same time, several senior DeepMind leaders have taken on larger roles within Google’s AI business. DeepMind CTO Koray Kavukcuoglu was recently promoted to Chief AI Architect at Google, while Pushmeet Kohli became Chief Scientist at Google Cloud.
“Demis has a huge amount of soft power at Google and beyond,” Matt Clifford, co-founder of Entrepreneurs First, told FT, adding that Hassabis was working on AI long before the technology became mainstream and that many of his former protégés are now attracting major investor backing.
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