Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI assistant, said on Sunday that it is setting aside part of itself for the public. Subject to a shareholder vote, 5% of its shares will be committed to a new Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, and that slice is built to get bigger as the company does.
The growth is the unusual part. For every 50% rise in Anthropic's value above a set baseline, its board can add a further 2%, a decision left to the board's discretion rather than triggered automatically. Anthropic points out that tech companies commonly hand their executives escalating share awards as they grow, and says it is directing that equity to the public benefit instead.
A company, not a charity
The fund will be a wholly-owned LLC, a company Anthropic owns outright, rather than a 501(c)(3), the usual American charity structure. That, Anthropic says, lets it move between different forms of giving. None of the shares the fund holds can be used for lobbying or political donations, in the US or anywhere else.
Most of Anthropic's public-benefit work happens inside the company today: safety research, biomedical research and discounted Claude for nonprofits and scientific institutions. Those have a commercial side as well, which is why they live in the company itself. The fund is meant to bring more flexibility and scale.
As for what the money could do, Anthropic offers examples rather than a plan. It might make large donations to traditional nonprofits, or pay money directly to specific groups of people. The example it names is work. AI may create enormous economic value but could unsettle many workers, and Anthropic has already committed $200 million to studying and addressing that, a pledge that came before the fund. Bolder approaches may be needed, the company says, and the fund is meant to pursue them.
Adding up the pledges
Anthropic is registered as a public benefit corporation in Delaware, and its charter requires its leadership to balance shareholder returns with responsible AI development. Its co-founders pledged at the outset to give away 80% of their equity, and about half its staff take part in a scheme in which Anthropic matches the shares employees pledge. Combined with the new fund, the company says, roughly 20% of its shares will be dedicated to the public good, before anything added by hitting valuation milestones.
Those milestones are one of the things nobody outside the company can see yet, along with who will decide what the fund pays for. Anthropic says it will share the fund's structure and governance in the coming months, alongside a public benefit report on its progress so far.
