The case of Sam Bankman, the founder of the bankrupt FTX exchange, has come back into the spotlight again, after estimates suggested that his wealth could have exceeded $100 billion, if his early investments had continued without the collapse of FTX and his imprisonment on charges of financial fraud.

According to a report by Forbes magazine, Bankman was not only betting on cryptocurrencies, but also used the company Alameda Research to make early investments in a range of leading technology and artificial intelligence companies, years before their current boom.

Those investments included stakes in Anthropic, the Cursor company, the Robinhood platform, and the Solana cryptocurrency, along with indirect exposure to SpaceX through K5 Global.

At the time, these investments were considered high-risk wagers, but many of them later turned into massive, high-value assets—especially with the explosion of the AI sector and the return of momentum to technology and cryptocurrency markets.

The value of Anthropic skyrocketed with the AI race, while Cursor benefited from the surge in AI-powered programming tools, and Robinhood and Solana rebounded strongly after the market crash in 2022.

Investors believe that Sam Bankman had a striking ability to get in early on major technological trends, which would have driven his wealth to nearly $100 billion, if those assets had remained under his control.

But the collapse of FTX in November 2022 changed everything, after the platform faced a severe liquidity crisis that led to a wave of mass withdrawals and a financial shortfall estimated at about $8 billion.

Prosecutors accused Sam Bankman of using customer funds to finance high-risk investments, political donations, and trading losses through Alameda Research, before he was later convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison in the United States.

During the bankruptcy proceedings, the court-appointed liquidators sold many assets linked to his investment portfolio, including stakes in AI companies and venture capital.

But with the massive surges those companies later experienced, the debate has reignited again about what Sam Bankman could have become today… not as a prisoner serving a 25-year sentence, but as one of the richest tech men in the world, with a fortune that could exceed $100 billion...
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