Anthropic plans to place 5 percent of its shares in a new Public Benefit Fund, subject to shareholder approval, as the developer of the Claude AI chatbot prepares for an initial public offering that could rank among the largest in history, Seeking Alpha reported. The initiative, announced Sunday, is designed to address the societal consequences of artificial intelligence, including potential job losses as businesses increasingly deploy AI-powered automation.
Under the proposal, the fund would be established as a wholly owned limited liability company and receive an initial 5 percent stake in Anthropic. The company's board could allocate an additional 2 percent of its shares for every 50 percent increase in Anthropic's value above a baseline that has yet to be disclosed, meaning the fund's resources would grow alongside the company's valuation, Tekedia reported.
Anthropic said the fund could support traditional nonprofit organizations, direct distributions to specific populations and programs addressing AI's effects on the labor market. The company has already committed $200 million to studying AI's effect on jobs. The equity held by the fund would not be used for political contributions or lobbying activities, either in the United States or internationally.
The move builds on earlier pledges: Anthropic's co-founders committed at the start to donate 80 percent of their equity, and about half of employees take part in a share-pledging program. Combined with the new fund, roughly 20 percent of Anthropic's shares would be dedicated to the public good, the company said, as it heads toward a listing that could value it at more than $2 trillion.
The announcement comes amid growing public unease about AI, which chief executive Dario Amodei has called a crisis of trust. Anthropic told investors its third-quarter revenue was $16.8 billion, and its IPO prospectus outlines plans to spend $518 billion on cloud computing and infrastructure, according to Bloomberg. With the listing expected as soon as November, the public benefit fund is also a statement to prospective shareholders about how the company intends to balance profit with its founding mission.