Vlad Bastion
Founder of Investment Bastion, Systematic Stock Ratings & Algorithmic Portfolios
Zoom's Anthropic stake could be worth about a quarter of its market cap and could revalue Zoom after Anthropic's IPO. Zoom invested about $51 million in May 2023 for a 1-1.3% stake at a $4-5 billion valuation; diluted to roughly 0.6-1%, it could be worth $5-8 billion at Anthropic's latest $800 billion-plus valuation. That matters because Zoom's own business has grown only 3-4% a year since the pandemic. x.comÂ
Zoom's stake in Anthropic, likely worth about $15 billion now, is probably more than Zoom's entire enterprise value. The core business is still a cash cow, but it may not matter if the investment can be cashed in for double Zoom's market cap by Anthropic's IPO. x.com x.comÂ
Zoom offers actual ownership of Anthropic ahead of Anthropic's expected post-Labor Day S-1, unlike certain SPVs and tokens. StoneX highlights Zoom into the filing with a $125 price target that becomes $135+ if Anthropic reaches a $2 trillion valuation. x.comÂ
Long Microsoft and short Zoom is the most straightforward alpha trade around. The long leg gives exposure to Microsoft and OpenAI, called good companies, while the short leg is Zoom and Anthropic, dismissed as bad ones. x.comÂ
Zoom may be sitting on a hidden gem in its Anthropic stake, which could be worth $2-4 billion if reports are accurate. An analyst named Power, reiterating an Outperform rating and $95 target, noted Zoom's $51 million investment in Anthropic in 2023; at Anthropic's reported $350 billion funding valuation, that stake would be worth far more. The stock is starting to wake up again. x.comÂ
Zoom is a way to own Anthropic equity, and a purer play than Google because its Anthropic stake is larger relative to its market cap. Anthropic's revenue run rate reportedly rose to $44 billion from $30 billion a month earlier, and its next funding round should value it at $900 billion or more. x.com x.comÂ
SK Telecom is a better Anthropic proxy than Zoom, and the pair favors owning SK Telecom over Zoom. Per a post the author replies to, SK Telecom owns about 1.07% of Anthropic versus about 0.6% for Zoom after dilution. Zoom's core business could be in real jeopardy, while SK Telecom's Korean franchise could benefit as it moves into gigawatt-scale data centers for hyperscalers. SK Telecom also pays a 3-4% dividend yield, unlike typical multi-layer SPVs that cost holders money. x.comÂ
Zoom's Anthropic stake is free optionality, because the market still prices Zoom like a no-growth company. Zoom put $51M into Anthropic's Series C at a $4.5B valuation in May 2023, a 1.1% stake before dilution. Baird values that stake at $2B-$4B, equal to 6-13% of Zoom's $31.1B market cap. x.comÂ
Zoom's Anthropic stake is a hidden asset that makes the stock hard to ignore at 10x free cash flow. Zoom carries the stake at about $1.3 billion, but Anthropic's latest funding valuation implies about $3 billion, roughly $1.7 billion of hidden reserves. A roughly 40% FCF margin and aggressive buybacks add to the case. x.comÂ
Zoom's stake in Anthropic and others, now valued at $3.7B, would have to be marked up to over $6B if Anthropic goes public at about $2T. Zoom beat on revenue, billings and EPS, though operating margin was slightly light and guidance was in line. It holds $7.2B of cash, generates $1.8B of free cash flow for about a 10% FCF yield on EV, and bought back $360M of stock. It is no longer an online churn story but an enterprise revenue story. x.comÂ
Amazon, Alphabet, Salesforce and Zoom are the public way to own Anthropic, whose run-rate revenue has passed $30B from about $9B at end-2025, with Claude Code above $2.5B and a rumored next valuation of $850-900B+. Amazon's stake is marked above $70B, about 2.4% of its market cap; Alphabet's possible 15% stake is worth about $57B, or 1.2%; Salesforce's estimated 1% stake is about 2.2% of its value; and Zoom's estimated $2-4B stake is 6-13%. Microsoft and Nvidia's exposure is negligible. x.comÂ
