Anthropic will commit 5% of its shares to a public benefit fund, if holders agree

Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind Claude, said on Sunday, Oct. 18, that it will commit 5% of its shares to a new Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, if stockholders approve.

The board could add another 2% of the shares, at its own discretion, for every 50% rise in the company's value above a baseline Anthropic has not published.

On the $965 billion valuation Anthropic published when it raised $65 billion in May, that 5% is $48.25 billion of stock.

The fund stays inside the company

Anthropic is already a public benefit corporation, a form that requires the board to weigh interests beyond investor profit. The new fund is a limited liability company Anthropic owns outright.

Wholly owned means the shares stay with Anthropic. The company said it is using an LLC it owns, rather than a 501(c)(3), the usual U.S. tax-exempt charity, "to give adjustability between different forms of giving."

It might use the shares for large donations to traditional nonprofits, or for direct distributions to specific populations. It named no recipient.

Anthropic said it would share the fund's structure and governance in the coming months, including the valuation milestones that could add shares. Who governs the fund is part of that account, and so is whether the shares vote.

"None of the Anthropic equity held by the LLC will be used for lobbying or political giving, in the US or abroad," Anthropic said.

"AI may generate enormous economic value, but it could also cause instability for many workers," the company said.

It has already committed $200 million to studying and addressing that problem. Given the pace of AI progress, it said, "bolder approaches may be needed." The fund, it said, will have the versatility to pursue them.

"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," Anthropic said.

The co-founders pledged at the company's founding to donate 80% of their equity, and about half of its employees take part in a donation program the company matches. Anthropic's own tally, counting those pledges with Sunday's plan, is that roughly 20% of its shares would be dedicated to the public good, plus any further shares if the company hits milestones it has not published.

The earlier pledges are separate from the new fund. The 5% is the slice that would go into it.

OpenAI put its stake outside the company

OpenAI built the other arrangement. On Oct. 28, 2025, OpenAI said the OpenAI Foundation holds 26% of OpenAI Group, a stake it valued at about $130 billion, and that the foundation continues to control OpenAI Group. Anthropic's fund would hold Anthropic shares, and Anthropic would own the fund.

On Sept. 19, 2023, Anthropic described a separate Long-Term Benefit Trust: five members with no financial stake in the company, whose power to elect and remove directors would grow until they chose a majority of the board. That was a design for Anthropic's board. Sunday's announcement did not give the fund that role.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, wrote on X the same day that he recommends giving the shares directly to the public. The reply was aimed at the fund, not at the idea of giving.

Stockholders still have to approve the 5%. Anthropic did not set a vote date. People familiar with the listing said in early October that formal marketing could begin as soon as the week of Nov. 9, in time to start trading before Thanksgiving in the United States, on Nov. 26.