Anthropic to commit 5% stake to new ‘public benefit fund’

AI lab Anthropic, the developer of Claude, said on Sunday it will commit 5 per cent of its shares to a new public benefit fund so it has increased flexibility and scale to make donations for the “public good.”

The proposed fund would be established as a wholly owned limited liability company and would receive an additional 2 per cent of Anthropic’s shares, at the board’s discretion, for every 50-per-cent increase in the company’s value above a baseline that has yet to be disclosed.

The move comes at a time when Anthropic is planning one of the biggest IPOs in history as a public benefit corporation, a legal structure that requires management to consider certain broader interests as well as turning a profit for investors.

It also comes against the backdrop of concerns around AI safety, following security breaches by AI systems and dire warnings from industry heads about the possibility of severe, even existential, risks of runaway AI development.

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Anthropic, which has positioned itself as a safety-first AI lab, has said AI could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity” and devoted roughly 80 pages of the 261-page main body of its prospectus to laying out risk factors.

The company said in its blog post its Public Benefit Fund could support initiatives including non-profit donations, direct distributions to specific populations and efforts to address AI’s impact on the labor market.

Elon Musk, who runs Anthropic rival SpaceX, on X said he recommended “giving the shares directly to the public.”

“Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many,” Musk said in a post early on Monday. He held about 6.42 billion shares in the company as of June.

Anthropic cited the potential impact of AI on workers as one area of focus for the new fund, building on a previously announced US$200-million commitment to study and address labour-market disruption.

Global companies have cut thousands of jobs after investing heavily in AI, with many, primarily tech firms, pointing to higher efficiencies from the technology’s rapid adoption.

IMF research shows that some 40 per cent of jobs will be either augmented, downgraded or eliminated by AI, with the number as high as 60 per cent in advanced economies, managing director Kristalina Georgieva said last week.

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Not for political giving

The AI giant said none of the equity held by its fund would be used for lobbying or political giving in the US or abroad.

US policymakers are weighing greater oversight of AI and companies are stepping up efforts to shape how the technology is regulated.

Combined with its co-founders’ pledge to donate 80 per cent of their equity and an employee donation matching program, roughly 20 per cent of Anthropic’s shares will be dedicated to public purposes, excluding any additional shares added later.

Anthropic said it would say more in the coming months on the fund’s governance, structure and the valuation thresholds that could expand its ownership stake. It also plans to publish a public-benefit report detailing progress toward its mission.