Anthropic puts 5 percent of its shares in a fund for the public good

The fund is a limited liability company that Anthropic owns entirely, not a charity under American tax law. Anthropic says that leaves room to choose between forms of giving. The fund could make large donations to traditional nonprofits, or make what the company calls direct distributions to specific populations. As an example it names the effect of AI on the labour market, where Anthropic says it has already committed 200 million dollars through a research fund on the economic future.

The roughly 20 percent adds up three things. The co-founders pledged at the founding to give away 80 percent of their shares. Employees can pledge shares, and Anthropic matches them. The company says about half of its employees take part. And now the 5 percent in the fund.

Anthropic writes that none of the shares in the fund will be used for lobbying or political giving, in the US or abroad. Shares that would otherwise go to executives as rising pay awards go to the fund instead.

Who runs the fund, how it decides, and what the valuation milestones are, Anthropic says it will explain in the coming months. It also promises a public benefit report.

Two days earlier, Politico reported that Anthropic is quietly showing Congress its own AI bill. The ban on lobbying applies to the shares in the fund, not to the company itself. Why the labour market comes first is in what AI does to work here.

The baseline for the extra 2 percent is not public. Nor is who governs the fund, or how the roughly 20 percent was calculated. The stockholders have not yet approved the 5 percent.

Who would receive direct distributions, and in which countries, the post does not say. Whether Europeans could receive anything from it is therefore open.

Shares in a company that is not listed are not cash. When and how the fund can turn them into money, the post does not say.