SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge granted final approval of Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement of a class action copyright lawsuit on Monday. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin signed off on the settlement amount, which resolves claims that the artificial intelligence company misused copyrighted books to train its Claude AI model.

The settlement covers an estimated 480,000 to 500,000 works. The payout provides $3,000 per work, shared among the authors and publishers who hold rights to them. Authors and other copyright holders filed claims covering over 92% of the works included in the settlement.

"We are gratified by the Court’s ruling granting final approval of this historic settlement," lead attorney Justin Nelson said. "It is the largest known copyright recovery in history." Nelson added that the legal team is prepared to begin the payment process. "We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible," he said.

Judge Martinez-Olguin overruled objections from some authors who argued the settlement was too small, overcompensated attorneys, or excluded some copyright owners. The court awarded the attorneys more than $101 million of the $187.5 million they requested in fees. Some authors and publishers opted out of the settlement and have filed separate lawsuits against Anthropic that are ongoing.

The lawsuit was filed in 2024 by a group of authors who accused Anthropic of misusing their books to train its AI chatbot Claude. Former U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued preliminary approval of the settlement in September 2025. Before the settlement negotiations advanced, Judge Alsup ruled in June 2025 that Anthropic made fair use of authors' works to train its AI model.

Judge Alsup also ruled that Anthropic violated rights by saving more than 7 million pirated books to a central library. Anthropic obtained books from two sources: books it purchased and scanned, and books downloaded from pirate sites like Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror. A trial was scheduled to begin in December 2025 to determine damages for the alleged piracy, but the final approval superseded that timeline.

Anthropic is an American artificial intelligence company established in 2021. The company had an estimated valuation of $965 billion in May 2026. It is the most valuable pure-play AI company in the world.

This ruling concludes a significant legal challenge regarding the use of copyrighted material in the training of large language models. The $1.5 billion figure represents a substantial financial resolution for the class of authors and publishers involved. The court's decision to award over $101 million in legal fees shows the complex and costly nature of intellectual property litigation in the technology sector.

By approving the settlement, the court provided a definitive end to the specific claims included in this class action, though separate lawsuits from opting-out parties remain active. The outcome establishes a precedent for how copyright violations related to data sourcing for AI training may be monetarily resolved in future cases.