Anthropic commits 5% of its shares to a public benefit fund

On 18 October Anthropic said it will commit 5% of its shares to a new Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, subject to stockholder approval. The announcement comes as the company prepares to begin marketing its IPO in November. Oversight and the timing of distributions have not been disclosed.

For every 50% increase in company value above a yet-undisclosed baseline, the board may add another 2% of shares. Anthropic says it is directing to the public benefit the equity that tech companies typically give executives as escalating awards.

The fund adds to the co-founders' pledge to donate 80% of their equity and an employee donation match in which about half of staff participate. At the roughly $2 trillion valuation reported for the IPO, 5% alone would be worth about $100 billion.

Anthropic is a public benefit corporation. The fund will be a wholly owned LLC rather than a 501(c)(3), allowing flexibility between forms of giving. Its shares will not be used for lobbying or political giving.

Possible uses include large donations to nonprofits, direct distributions to specific populations and bolder approaches to labour market impacts. Anthropic committed $200 million to economic research in June. Governance details and valuation milestones will follow in the coming months.

Pledges by tech founders to give away wealth are common, but they usually come from individuals. Anthropic is unusual in committing company equity, with a mechanism that grows with the valuation. OpenAI's nonprofit foundation holds a large stake in its for-profit arm, a different structure that came out of its restructuring.

How AI wealth is shared is one of the industry's biggest political questions. Critics note that governance, who decides and by what criteria, is still unknown.

Reinvest part of the time AI saves you into training your team, state openly how you use AI and who benefits, and expect investors to bring social impact questions to smaller companies too.