Silicon Valley banker wants to swap his $8M estate for Anthropic stock | Latest Tech News
A Silicon Valley dealmaker is trying to swap his 14-acre estate for shares of the AI giant Anthropic – the latest signal of the lengths buyers will go to get a piece of the red-hot artificial intelligence sector, The Post has discovered.
Storm Duncan, founder of the tech-focused investment bank Ignatious, detailed in an exclusive interview how the weird transaction might work – including Duncan overlaying all the closing prices for any Anthropic equity holder who takes him up on the offer.
Duncan said real-estate advisors have pegged the worth of his unfold – a 4,400-square-foot, four-bedroom mansion perched in the hills of Mill Valley just north of the Golden Gate Bridge – at roughly $8 million. The lavish compound and its infinity pool boast sweeping views of San Francisco Bay and close by Mount Tamalpais.
Duncan’s lavish compound and its infinity pool boast sweeping views of San Francisco Bay and close by Mount Tamalpais. Provided by Storm Duncan
“There’s definitely been some interest in it,” Duncan told The Post. “But it’s not your typical deal.”
The 56-year-old financier’s itemizing – which sparked chatter in tech circles after he posted it on Linkedin this week – exhibits that even well-connected tech insiders are scrambling to snag shares of privately held AI startups before they go public.
Some social media customers flagged Duncan’s pitch as the latest indicator the AI market is overheating.
“Peak late-cycle vibes. Please frame this and put it on the wall,” one X consumer commented.
Storm Duncan, founder of the tech-focused investment bank Ignatious. linkedin/stormduncan
Duncan said he already has Anthropic shares which he acquired in a 2024 funding spherical. He has gotten to know Anthropic’s management staff through prior work and said he believes they are going to succeed in the AI race long time period.
“It’ll be a conversation,” Duncan said. “But I don’t take my offer as a sign that the market has reached the top.”
San Francisco-based Anthropic has currently fielded presents from enterprise capitalists that would worth it at $800 billion or more, according to a Bloomberg report this month. Duncan said his own analysis of Anthropic’s financials yields a related valuation.
Duncan’s 4,400-square-foot, four-bedroom mansion in the hills of Mill Valley just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Provided by Storm Duncan
Acquiring shares straight from another particular person versus shopping for them through so-called secondary markets presents more transparency, Duncan said, including that figuring out the legitimacy of still-private startup shares could be tough and dangerous.
There are also tax benefits to doing a swap for his home, he added.
A swap would have to happen at a current valuation for Anthropic and he would enable any takers to retain 20% of the upside worth of the exchanged shares before they could possibly be legally transferred to him, Duncan said.
The 56-year-old financier’s itemizing – which sparked chatter in tech circles after he posted it on Linkedin this week Provided by Storm Duncan
San Francisco-based Anthropic has currently fielded presents from enterprise capitalists that would worth it at $800 billion or more. REUTERS
Duncan has invested in quite a few AI startups including Gecko Robotics which has been valued at $1.25 billion; he has also backed enterprise networking company Upscale AI, which inked a $200 million Series A financing in January.
The Mill Valley estate at 114 Inez Place has long served as a social gathering vacation spot. In the years before Covid, Duncan said he threw shindigs for as many as 700 friends, with fashions, real-estate bigwigs and influential technologists in attendance.
“Suffice to say that if the house blew up during a party, it would have been a problem for the tech world,” Duncan said. “My goal with those parties was to get people together from different walks of life.”
Duncan said he now splits his time between houses in Miami and Wyoming and that a “very famous” enterprise capitalist at the moment lives at his Mill Valley estate, declining to title the renter.
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