Dario Amodei’s wife, who is not an employee of Anthropic but serves as his personal adviser, has suddenly found herself in the headlines as the company prepares for a potential $2 trillion stock-market debut. Until just a few days ago, there was almost nothing about her online.
“I can’t do TV sex.” That is perhaps the best translation of the phrase “Can’t do Tv sex”, written by Jeffrey Epstein in response to a proposal to invest in an adult platform aimed at female audiences. The correspondence appears in the so-called Epstein Files and was cited by the Wall Street Journal, which published an image of the document.
While Epstein’s 2012 response is relatively easy to understand — the businessman had already been registered as a sex offender since 2008 — the reasons why an American entrepreneur would have approached the notorious sex offender about investing in a sexual-content website are less clear.
The platform was reportedly going to be called Eddice, in honour of her grandmother. The project, apparently one of several ventures she attempted over the years, was signed — like the emails to Epstein — by Cami Clark, the current wife of Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic.
Anthropic is the company behind Claude and one of the leading players in artificial intelligence innovation. From its beginnings as an offshoot of OpenAI, the company has emphasised an ethical and responsible approach to AI. It is now reportedly preparing to launch an initial public offering next autumn, with a valuation estimated at more than $2 trillion.
That is why, since mid-August, Cami Clark has suddenly become a subject of interest.
Anthropic’s “first lady”
Clark is now being described by many as the “first lady of Anthropic”. She accompanied her husband Dario to an AI summit in New Delhi, appeared in the front row at Davos and attended the tech billionaires’ summit in Sun Valley in early July.
Born in Reno in 1979, Clark reportedly began working at a plumbing company when she was 14, according to The Information. She later studied architecture but did not graduate.
Very little is known about her. In fact, until a few days ago, almost nothing was known about her publicly.
As both the Wall Street Journal and The Information began investigating her simultaneously, they found remarkably little information online. The Information reported that “efforts were made to remove any references to her” from the internet.
The Wikipedia page for Amodei did not mention his marriage until August 13, despite the couple having married in 2022 after beginning their relationship in 2014. Online searches for “Amodei wife” reportedly returned references to his sister Daniela instead.
Even Claude itself had previously explained that the marital status of its CEO “did not appear to be clearly confirmed”.
When asked today why it had given that answer, Claude became defensive: “It’s not that I was deliberately ‘hiding’ something — the publicly available sources were simply scarce or ambiguous until a few days ago. Now, after searching online as I just did, the information is verifiable.”
Cami Clark, then, was practically invisible until very recently.
A controversial career
This was despite a history of relationships and business ventures that have made her — and make her even more so now — one of the more influential women in Silicon Valley.
The reasons can only be speculated about. The Wall Street Journal, however, does not shy away from describing her career in stark terms.
The newspaper portrays it as “an extraordinary rise for a woman who did not graduate from college, had a brief marriage at the age of 20 to a man more than 40 years older, and even filed for bankruptcy”.
Her career has included co-founding a company described as offering “free luxury pornography” for women, through which she unsuccessfully attempted to persuade convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to invest. She also launched an app focused on “social dieting” for women, which later evolved into an artificial intelligence company focused on women’s health.
Without passing judgement, the article suggests that Clark’s background may sit uneasily with the “ethical marketing” that Anthropic has cultivated since its foundation — particularly at a time when the company is preparing for a potential stock-market listing.
Her role in Anthropic’s rise
Yet despite operating largely behind the scenes, Clark has played a significant role in Anthropic’s rise.
Rather than a “grey eminence”, she might be described as a “blonde eminence”.
She was responsible for bringing in one of the company’s first major investors in 2021: Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, who was in a relationship with Clark between 2011 and 2014.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Clark had proposed that Schmidt create an AI investment fund that she would co-manage. The idea reportedly did not appeal to Daniela Amodei. Clark therefore entered the company’s orbit through another door.
She does not officially work for Anthropic, but is described as Amodei’s personal adviser, handling his security, public image and relationships.
That has included her friendship with Ivanka Trump, for example, during a period when her father, then president, was at odds with Amodei.
Clark is said to be the social force behind her husband, who is known for his extreme privacy.
A member of the WhatsApp group “Real Housewives of AI”, Clark is described by The Information this way: “Unlike the more introverted Amodei, Clark is a skilled relationship builder.”
Relationships that are now becoming worth more than $2 trillion.
And yet, until just a few days ago, almost nothing was supposed to be known about her.
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