The Anthropic logo. Image: Anthropic
Anthropic is handing a slice of itself to a new charity-style vehicle. The Claude maker said on Sunday it will commit 5% of its shares to the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, subject to stockholder approval, and that the fund’s stake can grow as the company’s value does.
The board can add a further 2% of Anthropic’s shares for every 50% rise in the company’s value above a set baseline. Anthropic hasn’t said what that baseline is: it promises details of the fund’s structure, governance and valuation milestones “in the coming months”.
What the fund is for
As a public benefit corporation, Anthropic says most of its mission work happens inside the company: safety and interpretability research, applied biomedical research and discounted Claude for nonprofits and scientific institutions. The new fund is meant for things that don’t fit there.
Anthropic gives two examples of what it “might explore”: large donations to traditional nonprofits, and direct distributions to specific populations. The one area it singles out is the effect of AI on jobs. It says it has already committed $200 million to studying and addressing labour-market impacts, but that “given the pace of AI progress, bolder approaches may be needed”.
The company didn’t say who would decide where the money goes, or when the first grants or payouts would be made.
An LLC, not a charity
The fund will be a wholly owned limited liability company rather than a 501(c)(3) charity or another format. Anthropic says that gives it room to switch between different forms of giving. A US 501(c)(3) faces tight limits on what it can fund and how; an LLC is more flexible, but gives up a charity’s tax treatment and public reporting rules.
Anthropic says none of the Anthropic equity held by the fund will be used for lobbying or political giving, in the US or abroad. That matters because AI money in politics is already contentious ahead of November’s US midterms, with tech figures backing rival super PACs such as Leading the Future.
“Escalating compensation” turned around
Anthropic pitches the sliding scale as a twist on a familiar Silicon Valley tool. “It is common practice for tech companies to offer escalating compensation awards to their executives,” the company wrote. “We are instead directing that equity to the public benefit.” The more Anthropic grows, the larger the share dedicated to the public good.
The fund adds to earlier pledges. Anthropic’s co-founders, including chief executive Dario Amodei and president Daniela Amodei, pledged at the founding to give away 80% of their equity, and the company runs a match for employees who pledge shares, which it says about half its staff use. Taken together with the new fund, Anthropic says roughly 20% of its shares will be dedicated to the public good, before any milestone top-ups.
What 5% could be worth
Anthropic didn’t put a dollar figure on the stake. At the $965 billion valuation it was estimated at in May, 5% would be worth close to $48 billion, though that is our own sum on a private-market price. The stakes could get much bigger: Anthropic has confidentially filed a draft S-1 for a stock market listing that could value it at about $2 trillion, and its IPO paperwork already sets out its public benefit structure and Long-Term Benefit Trust. Its latest numbers for investors show $16.8 billion in revenue in three months.
A fund holding shares in a soon-to-be-listed company would also be one of its larger shareholders, a point the promised governance details will need to address. Anthropic says it will also report on its progress against its mission in an upcoming public benefit report.
Why it matters
If Anthropic’s IPO lands anywhere near its hopes, this fund could become one of the largest pools of money aimed at AI’s side effects, starting with workers. How much good it does will depend on details Anthropic hasn’t published yet: the baseline, who runs it and how it spends.
Sources: Anthropic
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