The woman who helps steer Anthropic, the AI company racing toward a potential $2 trillion valuation, spent two years cultivating a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein while pitching him on a "luxury porn" venture. The connection, reported by the Wall Street Journal, adds another layer to the complicated personal histories embedded in the companies building the world's most powerful AI systems.
Cami Clark, who is married to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and serves as his informal strategic adviser, was introduced to Epstein in 2011 through John Brockman, a literary agent who connected the financier with academics and Silicon Valley figures. Clark and her business partner Michelle Capocefalo had started a company called Eddice, described as a "revolutionary porn company" making content billed as "intellectually promiscuous." The company's website featured titles like "Lady Porn Day" and "Orgasm, Inc."
The Epstein Correspondence
After the introduction, Clark sent Epstein a warm follow-up email. "Hello Jeffrey! We would love to have dinner with you this evening," she wrote, including her cellphone number. She followed up by sending him the script for "American Girl in Paris," described as the treatment for their first four films, with a note that it was "a little nsfw."
A year later, Clark wrote again to pitch Epstein on investing. She mentioned that Eddice had just hired someone from Oprah Winfrey's company and Ashton Kutcher's Katalyst, the media company behind shows like "Punk'd." When Epstein initially did not remember her, Clark replied, "We have the free luxury porn company. Does that ring a bell?"
Epstein responded, "Yes, a loud gong." Clark wrote back, "Haha, I was going to say, you would be the first person that didn't remember us." Epstein, who was a registered sex offender at the time, declined to invest, writing, "Can't do sex TV."
The Journal reports that Clark stayed in touch with Epstein over the next two years, inviting him to a Manhattan housewarming party for herself and Capocefalo. In 2013, someone sent Epstein a LinkedIn message telling him to congratulate Clark on becoming CEO of "Female Algorithm Technologies," a company whose online presence included a Tumblr account featuring nude photographs, a picture of Steve Jobs, and mottos such as "Great Minds F--- Each Other" and "Let's Make Lots of Money."
The Schmidt Connection
The Epstein relationship was one chapter in a series of connections to powerful figures in technology and business. Before meeting Dario Amodei, Clark dated Google co-founder Eric Schmidt for approximately three years. The relationship was kept relatively quiet, but its aftermath had consequences for Anthropic's early development.
After Clark began dating Amodei in 2014, she introduced her new partner to her ex-boyfriend. Schmidt visited the couple's San Francisco apartment in 2018. By the time Anthropic was founded in 2021, Schmidt had become one of the company's key early investors. The sequence of personal relationships that preceded Anthropic's founding illustrates how tightly intertwined the personal and professional networks of Silicon Valley can become.
Clark also played a role in connecting other figures in the AI industry. She introduced Mira Murati, a close friend and former colleague at a VR company, to OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman. Murati joined OpenAI in 2018 as vice president of applied AI and partnerships, eventually rising to head of technology before departing the company.
Her Role at Anthropic
Clark does not hold an official position at Anthropic. Her influence operates through channels that do not appear in corporate filings or organizational charts. She acts as Amodei's strategic adviser and accompanies him to major industry events, sitting in the front row during his presentations at Davos and other high-profile gatherings.
At the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, a gathering where media and technology executives meet potential investors and partners, Clark has been seen networking with attendees and introducing them to her husband. She has engaged with politicians and potential investors on Amodei's behalf, according to the Journal, chatting them up at conferences and events before bringing them over to meet the CEO.
This kind of behind-the-scenes role is common among spouses of major technology executives, but it takes on additional significance at a company like Anthropic, which has positioned itself as the safety-conscious alternative in the AI industry. The company's credibility depends partly on the judgment and character of its leadership, and the personal histories of that leadership are now under closer scrutiny as Anthropic approaches what could be a massive public offering.
The Broader Pattern
Clark's background includes a series of unusual choices that precede her connection to Amodei. Born in Reno, Nevada, in 1979, she never graduated from college. At age 20, she married Waldemar Eklof III, a Reno architect 44 years her senior who designed buildings including the Atlantis Casino Resort. The couple divorced after three years.
Her subsequent career included the Eddice venture, the "Female Algorithm Technologies" venture, and whatever work she pursued before becoming Amodei's partner and informal adviser. The trajectory from porn entrepreneur to Epstein correspondent to Silicon Valley power broker reflects the chaotic, relationship-driven nature of how influence flows in the technology industry.
The Epstein connection is the most sensitive element of the story. Epstein was convicted of sex offenses in 2008 and was subsequently charged with additional federal crimes before his death in 2019. Clark's correspondence with him occurred after his initial conviction, during a period when he was still actively cultivating relationships with influential people in technology, science, and finance. Her emails show a casual, persistent approach to building the relationship, treating Epstein as a potential investor in a business venture rather than as a convicted sex offender.
The fact that Epstein turned down the investment and the correspondence apparently faded does not erase the nature of the contact. Clark sought money from a man who was publicly known to be a sex offender, stayed in touch with him for two years, and treated the relationship as a normal networking connection. Whether this reflects poor judgment, a different moral framework, or simply the reality of how business gets done among certain circles in New York and Silicon Valley is a question that does not have an easy answer.
For Anthropic, the story arrives at an uncomfortable moment. The company is preparing for a public listing that could value it at more than $2 trillion. Its employees have been publicly warning that AI technology poses existential risks. Its CEO has positioned himself as a responsible steward of powerful technology. And now, the personal history of the person who serves as his closest informal adviser includes a two-year correspondence with one of the most notorious figures in recent American history.