Anthropic to Commit 5% of Its Shares to New ‘Public Benefit’ Fund

Anthropic plans to commit 5% of it shares to a new “public benefit fund” with the flexibility to make charitable donations or direct money to “specific populations.”

Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s chief executive and a face of the artificial-intelligence industry, has been vocal about the threat of social and economic disruption caused by rapidly advancing AI. Anthropic previously committed $200 million to studying and addressing AI-driven labor market instability. The new initiative aims to go further, the company said Sunday.

“Given the pace of AI progress, bolder approaches may be needed. The fund will have the versatility to pursue them,” Anthropic said in a press release, adding that the fund “might explore large donations to traditional nonprofits or direct distributions to specific populations.”

The company plans to commit an escalating proportion of shares to the public benefit fund if its value grows past a set baseline. The new entity will be structured as a wholly owned LLC, rather than a traditional nonprofit, and won’t be used for lobbying or political donations, Anthropic said. Between the new fund and previous commitments from Anthropic’s founders and employees, the company said roughly 20% of its shares would be “dedicated to the public good.”

Last week, the artificial intelligence firm hosted investors at its San Francisco office for a marathon day of presentations ahead of its planned IPO.

The public offering could raise as much as $100 billion with a valuation of around $2 trillion, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Anthropic is expected to share more details about its business with investors when it makes its IPO paperwork public in the coming weeks.

About a year ago, OpenAI completed its own restructuring in which its nonprofit parent was granted a 26% equity stake in its for-profit subsidiary, alongside shares owned by investors including Microsoft.