Anthropic plans to commit 5% of its shares to a new “public benefit fund” with the flexibility to make charitable donations or direct money to “specific populations,” the company said Sunday. The announcement lands as the AI lab prepares for what could be one of the largest initial public offerings in history — reportedly aiming to raise as much as $100 billion at a valuation of around $2 trillion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The new initiative goes further than Anthropic’s previous pledges. The company previously committed $200 million to studying and addressing AI-driven labor market instability; the new fund, Anthropic said, is designed for bolder approaches. “Given the pace of AI progress, bolder approaches may be needed. The fund will have the versatility to pursue them,” the company said in a press release, adding that the fund “might explore large donations to traditional nonprofits or direct distributions to specific populations.”

An LLC, not a nonprofit — and no lobbying

The structure is notable. The new entity will be set up as a wholly owned LLC rather than a traditional nonprofit, and Anthropic says it won’t be used for lobbying or political donations. The company also plans to commit an escalating proportion of shares to the fund if its value grows past a set baseline — meaning the commitment could grow as Anthropic itself grows.

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.”

The move fits the public posture of CEO Dario Amodei, who has been one of the AI industry’s most vocal figures on the threat of social and economic disruption from rapidly advancing AI. Amodei recently called on AI companies to “pace the frontier,” warning that capability growth could outstrip the industry’s ability to safely understand and control its systems — a stance covered in The Nerdy Humourist’s earlier reporting on the OpenAI-DeepMind safety debate.

The IPO machine is warming up

The timing is no accident. Last week, Anthropic hosted investors at its San Francisco office for a marathon day of presentations ahead of its planned IPO, and the company is expected to share more details about its business when it makes its IPO paperwork public in the coming weeks.

Investors weighing the offering will be studying an unusual governance setup. Anthropic is a public-benefit corporation steered by its Long-Term Benefit Trust, an entity empowered to seat four of the company’s seven board members — and dismiss them without cause — while also being able to block corporate actions. Its mandate is to steer AI for humanity’s long-term benefit. Trustees include former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and chairman Neil Buddy Shah, head of the Clinton Health Access Initiative. The company has said the trustees own no Anthropic equity and share none of its profits, being “compensated only for their time and service.”

A familiar playbook — and a contrast

The pledge invites comparison with OpenAI’s own restructuring, completed about a year ago, in which its nonprofit parent was granted a 26% equity stake in its for-profit subsidiary alongside investors including Microsoft. The industry’s biggest labs are converging on a similar pitch to the public and to regulators: massive commercial ambition wrapped in durable charitable and governance commitments.

Whether the fund proves more than a well-timed gesture will depend on the details that are still undisclosed — the baseline above which the share commitment escalates, the fund’s actual disbursement record, and how the Long-Term Benefit Trust exercises its considerable power once Anthropic is a public company. For now, the announcement does two things at once: it burnishes Anthropic’s public-interest credentials just as it starts selling itself to public markets, and it raises the bar for what “responsible AI company” means when the numbers involved are in the hundreds of billions.

The contrast with the rest of Big Tech’s AI spending spree is sharp. While rivals are racing to finance data-center buildouts with massive capital raises, Anthropic is carving out a fifth of its equity for the public good before it even lists.

Frequently asked questions

What is Anthropic’s new public benefit fund?
A new entity, structured as a wholly owned LLC, to which Anthropic plans to commit 5% of its shares. It can make charitable donations or direct money to “specific populations,” and the share commitment escalates if Anthropic’s value grows past a set baseline.

Why is Anthropic doing this now?
The company announced it on Sunday, just after hosting investors in San Francisco ahead of a planned IPO that The Wall Street Journal has reported could raise up to $100 billion at a ~$2 trillion valuation. IPO paperwork is expected to go public in the coming weeks.

Is the fund a nonprofit?
No. Anthropic says it will be a wholly owned LLC rather than a traditional nonprofit, and it won’t be used for lobbying or political donations.

How much of Anthropic is dedicated to the public good?
Between the new fund and previous commitments from founders and employees, the company says roughly 20% of its shares would be “dedicated to the public good.”

Source: The Wall Street Journal, “Anthropic to Commit 5% of Its Shares to New ‘Public Benefit’ Fund” (paywalled).