Initially, Arne Jacobsen designed the Ant for the canteen at Novo Nordic, an international Danish healthcare company. Today, the Ant is one of the prominent icons of the collection. Originally, the Ant was, however, close to ending up as just another prototype, because Fritz Hansen wasn't convinced of the chair's potential. The chair survived the initial scepticism, when Arne Jacobsen guaranteed to buy all chairs produced, if no one else would. Despite its minimalist form and svelte shape, the Ant is an extremely comfortable chair.

The Ant with four legs was a later version of model 3100 and it was not before 1971, after the death of Arne Jacobsen, the four-legged version became an official product in the collection.