Being early gives you a certain level of credibility. I’m not correct about everything; it’s just the one thing that matters in the end. In the midst of engineers discussing intelligent machines at a dinner table in the Bay Area, Tristan Thompson—who is best known for being a defensive anchor on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 2016 championship team—may have quietly made the most important decision of his post-basketball life.
Thompson recently discussed how he came to own stock in Anthropic, the AI research firm that developed the Claude model. According to reports, Anthropic is currently in talks to raise $30 billion at a valuation that is close to $900 billion. He tells the story in a way that is almost disarmingly informal. He began receiving invitations to Silicon Valley dinners while traveling to play the Golden State Warriors. NBA players and tech workers spending a few nights in the same city. “They were telling me about the future of AI and technology,” Thompson recalled. He sat and listened, and at some point between the appetizers and the main course, he was persuaded that something significant was being developed. “Hey man, I like what you’re talking about,” I said. You seem transparent and cool. This is a check. “I want to play the game.”
That quote could easily be interpreted as impetuous. However, it might represent something more instinctive, the kind of trust-based decision-making that athletes, trained to read opponents and teammates in real time, sometimes apply to the business world with startling accuracy. Pitch decks were not being studied by Thompson. He was reading the room, and it seemed to be quite convincing.
What followed sets this apart from other celebrity investment stories. Thompson took a methodical approach instead of parking money and leaving. In order to secure a larger combined stake in a round that was otherwise oversubscribed, he participated through a special purpose vehicle, effectively pooling capital with other athletes. He invited friends. He expanded on the wager. It’s not passive. That person was aware that access was the most valuable resource in the room, at least intuitively.
Athletes have a long history of converting their notoriety into business connections; Magic Johnson and Shaquille O’Neal are arguably the most well-known examples of athletes who realized that celebrity opens doors that money alone cannot. Although the industry is different and the stakes are significantly higher, at least in theory, Thompson appears to be operating from a similar playbook. The comparison that has been circulating on social media is Shaq’s early entry into Google, and it’s not unfair.
The past few months have been remarkable for Anthropic itself. Anthropic entered the public sector with the Gates Foundation’s $200 million commitment to a four-year partnership that focused on health, education, and agricultural tools in underserved areas. According to reports, revenue has increased and gross margins are currently higher than 70%. These are the kinds of figures that calm and reassure early investors.
Additionally, Thompson has begun to build more consciously in the field of artificial intelligence. He co-founded TracyAI, a sports analytics platform that was trained on basketball data and is intended to respond to text and speech queries. It’s still unclear if that endeavor will become noteworthy on its own. However, it suggests that the Anthropic investment was more than just a fortunate dinner conversation; it appears to have actually redirected his focus.
As I watch all of this, I get the impression that sports culture is subtly creating a generation of investors who are more astute than the media portrays them to be. Thompson didn’t have to comprehend every detail of Anthropic’s research to see that its founders had a strong belief in it. That’s sufficient sometimes. That’s sometimes the whole point.
