Anthropic plans to put 5% of its shares in a public fund
Stockholders must still approve it. The board can add 2% more for every 50% rise in the company’s value above a baseline it has not published, and the fund may not pay for lobbying.
Anthropic, the maker of Claude, is a public benefit corporation: a company that must weigh a public mission alongside profit. It does most of that mission work inside the company, such as safety research and discounts on Claude for nonprofits. On Sunday, October 18, it announced a separate fund for giving.
“Subject to stockholder approval, 5% of Anthropic’s shares will be committed today,” the company wrote. On top of that, the board can choose to add 2% for every 50% rise in Anthropic’s value above a set baseline. Anthropic has not said what the baseline is.
“We are instead directing that equity to the public benefit,” Anthropic wrote, comparing the design with the growing pay awards that tech companies give their executives.
The fund is a limited liability company that Anthropic fully owns, not a charity of the kind US law calls a 501(c)(3). Anthropic says this lets it switch between different kinds of giving. None of the fund’s Anthropic shares will be used for lobbying or political giving, in the US or abroad, it says.
Anthropic gives only examples so far. The fund “might explore large donations to traditional nonprofits or direct distributions to specific populations”, it wrote.
Its main example is the effect of AI on jobs. Anthropic says it has already committed $200 million to studying and addressing that issue, and that “bolder approaches may be needed”.
Research on AI safety and biomedicine stays inside the company, and so do discounts on Claude. Anthropic says this work has both a public benefit and value for its business.
Anthropic is preparing to list on the stock market, and the fund would set aside a growing slice of the company for public causes, such as help for workers affected by AI. But no shares have moved yet, and Anthropic has not said who will run the fund or how. It promises those details in the coming months.