Anthropic puts 5% of its shares into a fund.
Anthropic, the maker of Claude, will put 5% of its shares into a fund that could pay for donations and work on AI's effect on jobs. It comes as the firm prepares a listing, and the rules on spending it are still to come.
Anthropic puts 5% of its shares into a fund
Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, says it will commit 5% of its shares to a new fund that will make donations for the "public good"1. The Anthropic Public Benefit Fund is set up as a wholly owned entity inside the company2. Its value may grow as the company's shares rise3.
Anthropic said the fund could make "large donations to traditional nonprofits or direct distributions to specific populations"2. It could also support efforts to deal with AI's effect on the jobs market1. The company has already put $200 million towards studying that effect, but says "given the pace of AI progress, bolder approaches may be needed"2. None of the fund's shares would be used for lobbying or political donations, in the US or overseas1.
The fund could get more later. The BBC reports that a further 2% of the shares could follow at the board's discretion1. TechCrunch describes the option as 2% for every 50% rise in Anthropic's value2. Who decides which causes get the money is not settled, and Anthropic says it will share more on the fund's structure and governance in the coming months2.
The timing matters. Anthropic is laying the ground for a stock market listing that could value it at more than $1tn, about £750bn1. The Independent reports that the listing could come as soon as November3. Last week the company told prospective investors that its revenue rose 45% to $16.8bn, about £12.6bn, in the three months to the end of September1.
The pledge comes as the AI industry faces growing public scepticism, which Anthropic's chief executive, Dario Amodei, has called "fundamentally a crisis of trust"2. Elon Musk replied on social media: "I recommend giving the shares directly to the public"1. Anthropic was set up as a public benefit corporation, a for profit company that weighs social impact alongside its financial targets3.
A pledge, not yet a plan
Five per cent of a company that may be worth $1tn is a large number on paper. It is still paper. The shares are worth what the market says they are worth, the fund sits inside Anthropic rather than beside it, and the rules on who spends it, and on what, are promised for later. We would wait for those rules before calling it generous.
For a UK business that buys Claude, nothing changes today: the product and its terms are as they were last week. There is no British angle in the story yet. What is worth noticing is the timing. Anthropic is about to ask the public markets for money, and it is answering the jobs question before investors and the public ask it. If your board is weighing how AI will change your own headcount, assume your staff are reading these stories too, and have your own answer ready.
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Anthropic says it will commit 5% of its shares to 'public benefit fund'
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Anthropic says it’s committing 5% of its shares to a ‘public benefit fund’
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Disney agrees to hire the majority of Character.AI’s workforce
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First harmonised standard supporting the AI Act published in the Official Journal
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