Bloomsbury Publishing Shares Rise After $1.5bn Anthropic Copyright Settlement Approved

Shares in Bloomsbury Publishing (LON: BMY) climbed on Wednesday after the company confirmed it will benefit from a $1.5 billion settlement in the landmark US class action Bartz et al vs. Anthropic, which has now been formally approved by a US District Court. The stock rose as much as 2% in early trading before settling up around 0.8% at 647p.

The case centred on Anthropic’s use of copyrighted material to train its AI models without permission or payment. The court has identified 14,087 Bloomsbury titles as falling within the scope of the settlement, with each qualifying work entitled to roughly $3,000, split equally between author and publisher after deduction of attorney fees and other expenses.

Bloomsbury said payments are expected to arrive in several instalments, with the first tranche anticipated in the second half of its financial year.

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Based on the number of titles involved, the eventual payout to Bloomsbury could run into tens of millions of dollars, though the exact timing and final amount remain subject to the settlement’s distribution process.

The publisher, known for titles including the Harry Potter series, entered the announcement with a healthy balance sheet, reporting £29.2 million of net cash as at 28 February 2026.

Management reiterated that capital allocation priorities remain organic investment, debt reduction, dividends and bolt-on acquisitions — suggesting any settlement proceeds are likely to be funnelled into these existing priorities rather than a one-off shareholder distribution.

Investors appeared to welcome the clarity and the prospect of a meaningful, if staggered, cash inflow tied to AI copyright enforcement.