The woman behind Anthropic’s CEO
Dario Amodei has become one of the most powerful figures in AI. A Wall Street Journal investigation sheds light on the wife who has advised him, built influential Silicon Valley connections and remained outside Anthropic’s formal hierarchy.
Dario Amodei, CEO of AI giant Anthropic and a direct competitor to OpenAI, is considered one of the most influential figures in technology today. Anthropic has just this week reported a $65 billion annualized revenue run rate ahead of an expected record-breaking IPO.
But a Wall Street Journal investigation published last week highlighted the person who may have the greatest influence on Amodei, including on major decisions and the company's strategy: his wife, Cami Clark.
Clark has already been dubbed the "First Lady of AI," even though she has no official role at Anthropic. She has appeared alongside Amodei at high-profile events, including the World Economic Forum in Davos. In February, she accompanied him to a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The couple has kept their marriage largely private. Amodei's Wikipedia page only began mentioning his marital status this year, while Claude, Anthropic's AI model, responds to questions about his personal life by saying that "Dario Amodei's marital status is not clearly verified."
Clark's background may help explain her preference for staying out of the spotlight. Born in Reno in 1979, she initially studied architecture but left university. She experienced bankruptcy in her youth and married architect Mulder Eklof III at age 20, when he was 64. The couple divorced three years later.
In 2010, she founded Eddice, described at the time as a "revolutionary porn company for women" that sought to promote sex positivity in an industry dominated by men. The company used the slogan "intellectually promiscuous."
Clark also reportedly approached convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein about investing in the company. Epstein declined, but the two continued corresponding for two years, according to documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice. Clark invited him to her housewarming party, and the two connected on LinkedIn.
She later pursued other health and diet-related ventures, although little information about those projects is now publicly available. Over the years, however, she built an extensive network of contacts among Silicon Valley executives and political figures.
Clark met Amodei in 2014, when he was still an academic and a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University School of Medicine. They married in Italy in 2022. People familiar with the couple's relationship have described Clark's contribution to Amodei's career as significant, saying she helped ensure that his ideas received attention in an increasingly competitive technology industry and connected him with influential figures and investors.
One of those connections was former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, with whom Clark had a romantic relationship for three years beginning in 2011. Schmidt later told Bloomberg that he visited Amodei and Clark at their San Francisco apartment in 2018 and was impressed by their ideas.
Clark also introduced Mira Murati, whom she considers a close friend from their time working together at Leap Motion, to OpenAI President Greg Brockman. Murati later served as OpenAI's CTO before leaving to launch her own AI startup.
The Information has described Clark as "a major player behind the scenes at Anthropic." People familiar with the matter have portrayed her as an emotional anchor for Amodei who has advised him throughout Anthropic's founding and growth.
Yet Clark has no official position at the company. The Information described her as "probably the most significant person within Anthropic's inner circle who does not have an official role in the startup."
According to reports, Clark sought shares in Anthropic and proposed investment ideas that would have given her a more formal position, but the proposals were rejected by the other founders, including her sister-in-law, Daniela Amodei.
She has nevertheless continued to use her personal network on the company's behalf. Amid Anthropic's dispute with the Pentagon over limits on the use of its technology, Clark reportedly told people in political circles that the company's objective was to protect the United States and that it was not "woke", a term that has taken on a derogatory meaning in the Trump administration.
Clark's influence over one of the world's most consequential AI companies may be growing. At the same time, her digital footprint appears to be shrinking.
According to the Wall Street Journal investigation, much of Clark's personal information has been removed from the internet, leaving an unusually influential figure in the AI industry with an increasingly elusive public profile.
