Investors keep pooling money to buy Anthropic shares despite ban

Even as Anthropic seeks to control how investors access its stock, multilayer special purpose vehicles (SPVs) continue to appear, often bypassing the company’s rules.

SPVs enable investors to pool funds together to make investments in a single deal, sometimes in a way that circumvents the company’s preferred process. Despite Anthropic Corporation’s latest $30 billion fundraise round banning SPVs, there have been several multilayer SPVs to buy shares in Anthropic in recent months.

While company-approved SPVs do not charge high fees and clearly disclose ownership of shares, this is not the case with multilayer SPVs.

For instance, an SPV that was pitched in the past month offered Anthropic shares at a valuation of $350 billion, with investors being asked to pay 10% management fees and 10% carry on their investment in return for indirectly acquiring the shares via another investor.

“This is a nightmare,” said Kelly Rodriques, Forge Global CEO Kelly Rodriques, noting that the layers increase fees and conceal transactions from Anthropic.

SPVs are in high demand as investors try to access hot AI startups before they go public. Buttonwood Funds Founding Partner Joseph Alagna said, “People want to get in before the initial public offering (IPO). There’s such high demand for these shares, so the swindlers are out there.”

Unsanctioned SPVs can charge much higher fees than traditional venture funds, which typically take a 2% management fee and 20% of profits. These multilayer deals often confuse small investors, who may not realise they are buying stock without the company’s knowledge.

While platforms like Sydecar allow SPVs to close private deals efficiently, they do not vet or endorse unsanctioned transactions. Companies such as Anduril have taken stricter stances, requiring pre-approval for any stock transfers.

Rodriques warns that multilayer SPVs “just create other layers of fees and the potential that you don’t get the stock at all.” Investors are urged to proceed with caution, as the secondary SPV market remains “rife with lies and outright fraud", according to Anduril Cofounder and COO Matt Grimm.