Zoom's Anthropic Stake and Huge Cash Pile Could Change the Story

For the past several years, the investment narrative surrounding Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM) has been relatively one-dimensional. The story focused almost exclusively on the return-to-office trend and whether the company could maintain growth after the global pandemic subsided. However, as of late January 2026, with the stock trading around $95, a shift in market sentiment is occurring. Smart money is beginning to look past the quarterly churn rates of video calling and is focusing on a massive, underappreciated asset sitting on Zoom’s balance sheet.

Investors are realizing that Zoom is no longer just a software utility. It has evolved into a deep-value holding company. The primary catalyst for this new perspective is a strategic, early-stage investment in Anthropic, one of the world's leading artificial intelligence (AI) firms. This equity stake offers investors a potential backdoor entry into the private AI market, forcing a complete re-evaluation of what Zoom stock is actually worth.

The Anthropic Factor: Accessing the AI Boom Through a Proxy

To understand the bullish case for Zoom, investors must look at its venture capital portfolio. In May 2023, Zoom Ventures made a strategic investment in Anthropic. At the time, the move was seen as a standard partnership. However, in the years since, Anthropic, the creator of the Claude AI models, has cemented itself as a top-tier competitor to OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google DeepMind.

The timing of Zoom’s entry was impeccable. By investing in 2023, Zoom secured its equity stake before the massive valuation surges that defined the AI sector in late 2024 and 2025. While tech sector giants like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Google have also poured billions into Anthropic, Zoom’s smaller market capitalization means that a successful liquidity event for Anthropic (such as an IPO) would move the needle significantly more for Zoom shareholders than it would for a trillion-dollar mega-cap.

For the average retail investor, this presents a unique opportunity. Anthropic remains a private company, meaning its shares are not available on public stock exchanges. You cannot log into your brokerage account and buy shares of Anthropic. However, owning Zoom stock acts as a proxy trade. As Anthropic’s valuation climbs in the private markets, the intrinsic value of Zoom’s stake rises with it. This creates a layer of paper wealth on Zoom's balance sheet that is not reflected in standard revenue metrics but provides tangible asset value.

The $7.9 Billion Cushion: A Mathematical Floor for the Stock

The presence of this appreciating AI asset has led analysts to utilize a sum-of-the-parts valuation method. This financial model values a company by breaking it down into its component assets rather than judging it solely on its price-to-earnings ratio (P/E). When viewed through this lens, Zoom appears to be trading at a discount relative to its software peers.

To understand this, investors must look at the company's fortress balance sheet. Zoom currently holds approximately $7.9 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities. It effectively has zero debt.

Here is how the valuation math works for a value investor:

• Total Market Cap: The stock market currently values Zoom at approximately $27 billion.
• Subtract the Cash: If you remove the $7.9 billion in cash, the market is effectively valuing the actual business operations at $19.5 billion.
• Subtract the Hidden Asset: If you further subtract the estimated value of the Anthropic stake (between $2 and $4 billion), the remaining number is the price you are paying for the core business.

The result implies that investors are acquiring Zoom’s profitable core operations, Meetings, Phone, and Contact Center, at a historically low multiple. The cash and the AI stake act as a margin of safety. They provide a financial floor that limits downside risk, as the company’s assets alone justify a significant portion of the stock price, regardless of short-term revenue fluctuations.

The Federated Moat: How Ownership Powers Product Strategy

The partnership with Anthropic is about more than financial returns; it is a critical defensive strategy against Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Microsoft has a deep alliance with OpenAI, which powers its Copilot features. If Zoom had to rent AI capabilities from a third party at retail prices, its profit margins would be crushed.

Instead, Zoom employs a federated AI approach. The platform routes user tasks to different AI models based on performance and cost. Because of its ownership stake and strategic partnership, Zoom has deep access to Anthropic’s Claude model. Claude is famous for its large context window, meaning it can read and summarize massive amounts of text, such as an hour-long meeting transcript, more accurately than many competitors.

This economic advantage allows Zoom to disrupt the market pricing model. Microsoft and other competitors often charge a premium (sometimes up to $30 per user/month) for their AI add-ons. In contrast, Zoom includes its AI Companion at no additional cost for paid license holders.

This is a classic moat strategy. By giving away premium AI features for free, Zoom increases the value of its subscription. This reduces churn, making it much harder for a CFO to justify switching their company to Microsoft Teams. They might save money on the bundle, but they would lose the free, high-quality AI tools their employees rely on.

A Value Play in a Growth Market

The investment thesis for Zoom has fundamentally evolved. In 2020, it was a speculative bet on hyper-growth. In 2026, it is a calculated bet on value and asset appreciation. The company has successfully pivoted from a simple video app into a mature platform with a diversified portfolio.

While the core business faces headwinds from slowing growth, the downside is heavily mitigated by the $7.9 billion cash pile and the disciplined capital allocation of the new management team. When you combine this safety net with the speculative upside of the Anthropic stake, the risk-reward profile becomes highly attractive.

For investors who feel they missed the initial AI gold rush, Zoom offers a second chance. It provides exposure to one of the most important private AI companies in the world, while remaining within the safety of a profitable, cash-rich public company. It may not be the flashiest stock on the Nasdaq, but the math suggests it might be one of the most misunderstood.

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The article "Zoom’s Anthropic Stake and Huge Cash Pile Could Change the Story" first appeared on MarketBeat.