The Information reported on 30 October that “An Anthropic Windfall Could Await State Pension Funds”. Anthropic’s own S-1 lists six purchases of its preferred stock by Spark Capital funds between 2023 and 2026, and they sum to $776,999,282 by our arithmetic, the roughly $777 million figure in a post relaying the report.
That post on X, by Rohan Paul, credits The Information. It says pension plans in Orange County, Los Angeles, Massachusetts and South Carolina are indirect Anthropic shareholders through Spark Capital, “whose roughly $777M in the company could become $9B or more if the November IPO holds near $1.5T”. We read only the headline of The Information’s article, which is paywalled.
The key insight: Anthropic’s S-1 lists six Spark Capital purchases of its preferred stock that sum to $776,999,282 by our arithmetic, the roughly $777 million in a post relaying The Information’s report on pension funds.
Video · Anthropic’s S-1 Explained
Our 26 October explainer on Anthropic’s S-1 revenue and compute commitments. It was made before this piece and does not cover Spark Capital.
The S-1’s related-party section lists Spark’s purchases round by round. For the 2026 Series H-1 round it shows Spark Capital buying 747,016 shares for $439,999,521, and says the shares were “purchased by Spark Capital Growth Fund VI, L.P. and Spark Capital Growth Fund Holdings 2026, LLC”.
The earlier rows show $74,999,991 in Series C-1 and $74,999,968 in Series D-1, bought by Spark IV entities, then $99,999,930 in Series E-1, $61,999,947 in Series F-1 and $24,999,925 in Series G-1, bought by Spark V entities. The six rows total 12,246,749 preferred shares.
By our arithmetic, Spark IV entities put in about $150.0 million, Spark V entities about $187.0 million and the 2026 vehicles about $440.0 million. The Series H-1 purchase alone is about 57% of the total.
The prices rose steeply across those rounds. The S-1 gives a purchase price of $11.2261 per share for Series C-1 and $589.0095 per share for Series H-1, about 52.5 times higher by our arithmetic.
Spark Capital purchases of Anthropic preferred stock by round as listed in the S-1 related-party tables: Series C-1 $75.0M and D-1 $75.0M (Spark IV entities), E-1 $100.0M, F-1 $62.0M and G-1 $25.0M (Spark V entities), H-1 $440.0M (Growth Fund VI and Holdings 2026). The six purchases sum to $776,999,282 by our arithmetic.
What Was Posted on X
Public pension plans in Orange County, Los Angeles, Massachusetts and South Carolina are indirect Anthropic shareholders through Spark Capital, whose roughly $777M in the company could become $9B or more if the November IPO holds near $1.5T.
Rohan Paul’s post credits The Information and says pension plans in Orange County, Los Angeles, Massachusetts and South Carolina are indirect Anthropic shareholders through Spark Capital, whose roughly $777M could become $9B or more if the November IPO holds near $1.5T.
Where Pension Money Comes In
Dakota, a fundraising-data firm, reported in March 2024 that “The Los Angeles Police & Fire Pension System (LAFPP) has approved two commitments to private equity’s Spark Capital, totalling $30 million”, citing the pension’s board meeting. It says “An additional $20 million was allocated to Spark Capital Growth Fund V”.
The S-1 names “Spark Capital Growth Fund V, L.P.” among the Spark V entities that bought Anthropic’s Series E-1, F-1 and G-1 stock. The documents we read do not give LAFPP’s share of that fund or of its Anthropic holding.
Spark also sits on Anthropic’s board. The S-1 says Yasmin Razavi “has served as a member of our board of directors since March 2023” and that she “joined Spark Capital, a venture capital firm, in July 2017 and has served as a General Partner since March 2020”.
What the $9 Billion Figure Assumes
The post’s $9 billion figure is tied to an IPO holding near $1.5 trillion. By our arithmetic, $9 billion is about 11.6 times the roughly $777 million Spark put in.
Anthropic’s own filing gives other markers. As we reported, its donation-matching note implies about $71.43 a share by our arithmetic, a figure Protos multiplies to reach roughly $1.2 trillion; our piece on that filing note explains the calculation. The S-1 also records a 10-for-1 split of Class A and Class N common stock in September 2026.
Anthropic is the top AI investment for 20 of the 100 investors in the Strebulaev-Jackson ranking, as our ranking piece reports.
The Structural Read
As we read the S-1 tables, the Series H-1 purchase of $439,999,521 in 2026 is about 57% of everything Spark put in, by our arithmetic.
As we read the filing, the Spark V entities that bought Series E-1, F-1 and G-1 stock include Spark Capital Growth Fund V, L.P., the fund Dakota reports LAFPP committed $20 million to.
As we read the documents, the $9 billion figure in the relayed report depends on an IPO near $1.5 trillion; by our arithmetic it is about 11.6 times the roughly $777 million Spark put in.
Anthropic, PBC, Form S-1, Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions, 26 October 2026
“purchased by Spark Capital Growth Fund VI, L.P. and Spark Capital Growth Fund Holdings 2026, LLC”
Three Implications
FOR PENSION FUNDS Dakota reports LAFPP committed $20 million to Spark Capital Growth Fund V; the documents we read do not give its share of Anthropic.
FOR SPARK The S-1 gives a Series C-1 price of $11.2261 and a Series H-1 price of $589.0095, about 52.5 times higher by our arithmetic.
FOR THE IPO The relayed report ties the $9 billion figure to a valuation near $1.5 trillion; the S-1 passages we read do not set a price.
The framework says “Every headline, every valuation move, every strategic decision in the cycle lives inside one of these nine boxes.”
As we read it, the S-1 purchase tables show who funded the model layer and at what prices. The framework does not discuss Anthropic’s S-1 or Spark Capital.
What Is Not Established
The S-1 rows show what Spark paid, not what its stake is worth now. The documents we read do not state Spark’s common share count after conversion, and they do not give any pension’s exposure to Anthropic. The $9 billion figure depends on an IPO valuation that has not been set. We did not read the body of The Information’s article, and the pension plans in Orange County, Massachusetts and South Carolina are named only in the post relaying it.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
Execution Fault Lines, Concentrated Demand, and Geopolitical Firewalls
This week’s issue: the AI build is not short of demand for its parts. It is short of cheap money, and its end revenue rests on a narrow base of large, often venture-funded buyers.
Anthropic’s S-1 lists six Spark Capital purchases that sum to $776,999,282, matching the roughly $777 million in the post relaying The Information. Dakota reports that a Los Angeles pension committed $20 million to Spark Capital Growth Fund V, one of the funds the S-1 names as an Anthropic buyer.
A note on sourcing. The purchase rows, prices and board details come from Anthropic’s Form S-1 filed with the SEC on 26 October 2026, read on EDGAR. Only the headline of The Information’s article was read; the pension plans and the $9 billion figure come from a post on X relaying it. The LAFPP commitment comes from Dakota’s report on the pension’s board meeting. Figures labelled our arithmetic are our own calculations.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
