Jeff Bezos‘ Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL)-backed Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit from authors who accused the artificial intelligence company of using their books without permission to train its Claude chatbot.
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Historic Copyright Settlement Sets AI Precedent
The proposed settlement marks the first resolution in a wave of copyright lawsuits targeting tech companies including OpenAI, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) over their use of copyrighted material for AI training, Reuters reported.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco must approve the deal announced in August. The settlement fund provides $3,000 per book for approximately 500,000 downloaded titles, with potential growth if additional works are identified.
Authors Claim Victory in ‘Piracy’ Battle
The plaintiffs' lawyers said the settlement clearly shows that using copyrighted material from sites is unacceptable, calling it the biggest copyright payout ever and the first major case like this in the age of AI.
Writers Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson filed the class action last year, alleging Anthropic unlawfully used millions of pirated books to train Claude. Anthropic denied wrongdoing and said it made fair use of the material.
Company Valuation Soars Amid Legal Resolution
The settlement comes as Anthropic’s valuation surged to $183 billion following Tuesday $13 billion funding round co-led by Fidelity Management & Research and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company’s run-rate revenue jumped from $1 billion in early 2025 to over $5 billion by August.
Under the agreement, Anthropic will destroy downloaded book copies but could still face claims related to AI-generated content, according to the report. The company said it remains “committed to developing safe AI systems” without admitting liability.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
