# Krishna Rao

Leadership · CFO at Anthropic · joined 2024

A Yale-trained lawyer who did private equity at Blackstone and corporate development at Airbnb before becoming CFO in 2024.

Full profile: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/anthropic/people/krishna-rao

**At Anthropic:**
- May 2024 – present: Chief Financial Officer
Sources: [1](https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishna-rao-193b613)

**Career before Anthropic:**
- 2023 – May 2024: Fanatics, Chief Financial Officer, Fanatics Commerce
- 2021–2023: Cedar, Chief Financial Officer
- 2018–2021: Airbnb, Global Head of Corporate & Business Development
- 2015–2018: Airbnb, Director, FP&A
- 2011–2015: Blackstone, Principal, Private Equity Group
- 2007–2008: Bain & Company, Senior Associate Consultant
- 2005–2007: Bain & Company, Associate Consultant
Sources: [1](https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishna-rao-193b613)

**Education:**
- J.D., Yale Law School
- A.B. in economics, Harvard College
Sources: [1](https://www.anthropic.com/news/krishna-rao-joins-anthropic)

**Lesser-known facts:**
- Started law school during the Great Recession. [1](https://law.yale.edu/studying-law-yale/alumni-student-profiles/krishna-rao-11)
- Worked as a Bain & Company consultant in both San Francisco and New Delhi. [1](https://law.yale.edu/studying-law-yale/alumni-student-profiles/krishna-rao-11)
- Sat on the boards of three private companies and observed on a public company board as a Blackstone principal. [1](https://law.yale.edu/studying-law-yale/alumni-student-profiles/krishna-rao-11)
- Led or supported more than $10 billion in Airbnb financings, including its December 2020 IPO. [1](https://law.yale.edu/studying-law-yale/alumni-student-profiles/krishna-rao-11)
- Ran both the finance and legal functions as Cedar's first CFO. [1](https://law.yale.edu/studying-law-yale/alumni-student-profiles/krishna-rao-11)
- Said the $65 billion Series H would fund safety and interpretability research, more compute, and Anthropic's products and partnerships. [1](https://fortune.com/2026/06/02/anthropic-cfo-krishna-rao-steering-one-anticipated-lpo-ever/)

**Interviews and talks:**
- [Podcast interview with Patrick O'Shaughnessy on managing compute and scaling, his first podcast appearance (2026)](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/krishna-rao-anthropics-cfo-on-managing-compute-scaling/id1154105909?i=1000767545842)

Researched with Autumn (https://www.autumn.ai) from public sources. Updated 2026-10-18. Everyone at Anthropic: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/anthropic/people