Anthropic Hands $48 Billion of Its Own Stock to a Public Fund. The Big Question Is Who Gets to Spend It

Anthropic Hands $48 Billion of Its Own Stock to a Public Fund. The Big Question Is Who Gets to Spend It

Most companies about to go public spend the final weeks talking about growth. Anthropic chose to talk about giving part of itself away.

On Sunday, the maker of the Claude AI assistant said it will set aside 5% of its shares for a new Public Benefit Fund, if shareholders approve. The Financial Times put the value of that stake at around $48 billion, based on Anthropic’s latest valuation of $965 billion.

That alone would make the fund one of the biggest pools of money ever set up for public causes. The more unusual part is how it can grow.

The fund grows as the company grows

The 5% is just the starting point. Every time Anthropic’s value rises by 50% above a baseline, the board can choose to add another 2% of the company to the fund. Anthropic hasn’t said yet where that baseline sits.

The company explained the idea by comparing it to how Silicon Valley usually pays its leaders. “It is common practice for tech companies to offer escalating compensation awards to their executives. We are instead directing that equity to the public benefit,” it said.

Put simply, the bigger Anthropic gets, the bigger the slice that’s meant to go to the public.

Where could the money go?

Anthropic gave a rough outline, not a detailed plan. The fund could make large donations to traditional nonprofits, or send money directly to specific groups of people. It would also add to work the company already funds in areas like AI safety and biomedical research.

The theme that stands out most is jobs. Anthropic has already put $200 million into studying how AI affects work. In its announcement, the company admitted that may not be enough: “Given the pace of AI progress, bolder approaches may be needed. The Fund will have the versatility to pursue them.”

The worry about jobs is real and widespread. An August survey from Pew Research Center found that 71% of US adults expect AI to mean fewer jobs over the next two years. McKinsey estimated last month that up to 11 million American workers may have to change careers over the next decade because of AI-driven automation.

Why an LLC and not a charity?

Here’s a detail most people will skip but shouldn’t. The fund won’t be a tax-exempt charity. It will be a limited liability company that Anthropic fully owns.

The company says this gives it room to switch between different kinds of giving, from grants to direct payments, without being boxed in by charity rules. It also promised that shares held by the fund won’t be used for lobbying or political donations, in the US or anywhere else.

Still, a company-owned fund means the company keeps a lot of control. Anthropic says it will share details on structure and governance in the coming months. Until then, the most important question, who actually decides where the money goes, has no answer.

Musk has a simpler idea

Elon Musk didn’t take long to reply. “I recommend giving the shares directly to the public,” he posted on X. He then went further, saying that next year he will give one SpaceX share to every child in America, and that it would be “the first of many.”

Musk isn’t the only one thinking along these lines. According to the FT, OpenAI discussed proposals over the summer to put about 5% of itself in public hands. Just over a quarter of OpenAI is already owned by its nonprofit, the OpenAI Foundation.

Generosity, or good timing?

It’s hard to ignore when this news landed. Anthropic is getting ready for what could be the biggest stock market debut in history, reportedly as soon as November. Last week, it told investors its revenue jumped 45% to $16.8 billion in the three months to September.

Lise Buyer, a partner at IPO advisory firm Class V Group, told CNBC the announcement was both necessary ahead of a listing and “beneficial from an image perspective.” She said it could be viewed well if the money actually helps workers retrain or find new jobs. But she added: “Of course, it is also to burnish their reputation at a time when AI is coming under significant scrutiny.”

That scrutiny is heavy right now. Anthropic’s own IPO filings reportedly warn that AI could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity.” Its CEO, Dario Amodei, has described the public backlash against AI as “fundamentally a crisis of trust.”

Part of a bigger pattern

To be fair to Anthropic, this isn’t its first move of this kind. The company was set up in 2021 as a public benefit corporation, which legally requires its leaders to weigh the public interest alongside profits. Its founders have pledged to give away 80% of their own shares, and employees can donate equity to charity through a company program. With the new fund, Anthropic says about 20% of its stock is now pledged to public causes.

What happens next

For now, this is a promise with a big number attached. Shareholders still have to approve it. The rules on who runs the fund, how decisions get made and when the extra 2% chunks get added are still to come.

If those details hold up, this could become a real model for how AI companies share what they earn. If they don’t, it will look like a well-timed headline before an IPO. The next few months will show which one it is.