A homeowner from the Bay Area wants to list his estate located in Mill Valley not for cash but for equity in Anthropic, an AI company. His estate is 14 acres, and is priced for about $8m.
As an M&A banker, he is aiming to attract a buyer who will trade their stock in Anthropic, which is estimated to be worth $1trn.
“I felt underexposed to AI, which is the future in my mind. And overexposed to real estate. And so, the concept was very simple. I was assuming there would be a bunch of young up-and-coming successful people at Anthropic that started there and maybe had a little bit of money but not much and now are worth a significant amount of money, but it’s all in one stock.
“One person at Anthropic reached out, he’s like I don’t want to live there but I think it’s a good diversification strategy. You have to be comfortable with the concept of exchanging that for a portion of your interest in Anthropic stock.”
Storm Duncan, Founder, Ignatious
Butch adds that due to increased interest in Anthropic, which is a privately-owned company, there could be some uncertainty.
“These are really unique times. It will be interesting for the title companies. How do they process the title work and do the actual trades? And how does the city collect taxes on the transfer tax? So, there are some things to work out here. The question is, would a buyer right now give up their Anthropic stock? And I think that’s the bigger question.”
Butch Haze, Luxury Real Estate Specialist, Compass
Jay Ritter also mentions there’s indications that Anthropic might go public within the next year.
“From a motivated seller, maybe an employee of the company that does have all their eggs in one basket and who wants to buy a house in this specific area, it might make sense,” he said. “I don’t expect selling a home for stock in a private company to be a trend. I think maybe there will be some copycats, but this is not something that your average middle-class investor is going to be doing.”
Jay Ritter, Director of the IPO Initiative, University of Florida
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