WSJ: Amodei’s Wife Advises Anthropic Chief as $2 Trillion IPO Nears

The latest:

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s wife, Cami Clark, functions as a strategic adviser and sounding board for one of the most powerful figures in artificial intelligence, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people close to the company. Clark does not work at Anthropic. The report said she brought in former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, whom she previously dated, as an early investor as the company was forming in 2021.

Details:

• The role: According to the Journal, Clark sits in the front row at Amodei’s appearances, including Davos, and talks with investors at gatherings such as the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley. The paper described her as a sounding board and strategic adviser, citing people close to Anthropic. Anthropic’s response to the reporting was not included.
• The digital trail: The Journal said scant details about Clark exist online and that efforts have been made to remove references to her, citing its own analysis and a person familiar with the matter. Amodei’s Wikipedia page did not list him as married until this summer and still does not name his spouse, the paper reported. It did not say who made those edits.
• Claude’s answer: Anthropic’s own chatbot, Claude, tells users Amodei’s marital status does not appear clearly confirmed, according to the report. Google searches for his wife often return a photo of his sister, Daniela Amodei, who helps run the company. The Journal did not say whether Anthropic has adjusted the model’s response.
• The Schmidt link: Clark was in a relationship with Schmidt from 2011 for about three years while he was Google executive chairman, and later introduced him to Amodei, the paper said. Schmidt visited the couple’s San Francisco apartment in 2018 and was impressed by their ideas, according to comments he gave Bloomberg. Schmidt’s comment on the Journal’s reporting was not included.
• The rejected fund: In February 2021, Clark pitched Schmidt on a venture vehicle called the Mother of AGI Fund, described in a 40-page proposal as a way to formalize her involvement in Anthropic and manage Schmidt’s investment, according to documents reviewed by the Journal. Daniela Amodei and other co-founders did not support it and it did not proceed, the paper said, citing people familiar.
• The Epstein emails: Justice Department-released Epstein files show literary agent John Brockman introduced Clark and her business partner to Jeffrey Epstein in March 2011, the Journal reported. Clark later pitched Epstein on her company, which she described as a “free luxury porn company.” Epstein declined, replying that he could not do sex TV. Brockman did not respond to requests for comment.
• Earlier ventures: The Journal said Clark, born in Reno in 1979, did not graduate from college, married a 64-year-old architect at age 20 and divorced three years later, and filed for bankruptcy in 2009 after a 2007 foreclosure. She later became CEO of Female Algorithm Technologies, of which the paper said few online traces remain.
• Anthropic and Washington: The company drew the Trump administration’s ire after Amodei declined to lift restrictions on Pentagon use of Claude; the government labeled Anthropic a supply-chain risk and effectively barred Pentagon partners from its technology, a designation Anthropic is challenging in court, the paper reported. Added June restrictions were later dropped. No court date was disclosed.
• Political outreach: Clark has told people involved in politics that Anthropic sees its mission as protecting America and is less woke than critics claim, according to people familiar with the matter. At Sun Valley in July she lunched with Ivanka Trump and spoke with Jared Kushner, whom Amodei had earlier approached about investing, the Journal said.

Background:

Amodei, his sister Daniela and five other employees left OpenAI in December 2020 after tensions with Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, founding Anthropic. Its May 2021 Series A raised $124 million, with investors including Jaan Tallinn, Dustin Moskovitz, James McClave and Schmidt.

Between the lines:

The Journal frames Clark as an unusually influential figure precisely because she holds no formal title: the rejected Mother of AGI Fund shows her involvement was never institutionalized, and the sparse online record leaves outsiders without a way to assess it. That combination matters more as Anthropic approaches a public listing, where disclosure standards are set by regulators rather than by the company.

What’s next

Watch Anthropic’s IPO filing, which could come as soon as this fall, for any disclosure of adviser relationships, and the court challenge to the Pentagon supply-chain risk designation.