Anthropic puts 5% of its shares into a public benefit fund

Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI models, says it will set aside part of its own equity for "the public good". In a blog post on Sunday, the company announced the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund. If stockholders approve, 5% of Anthropic's shares go into the fund now, and the stake can grow as the company does.

How the fund works

The structure is the unusual part. On top of the initial 5%, the board can add another 2% for every 50% increase in Anthropic's value above a baseline. Anthropic hasn't disclosed that baseline yet. The company compares this to the escalating stock awards tech firms often give executives, except here the extra equity goes to public causes.

The fund is a wholly owned LLC rather than a 501(c)(3) charity. Anthropic says that gives it room to switch between different kinds of giving. It also promises that none of the fund's Anthropic equity will be used for lobbying or political donations, in the US or anywhere else.

What the money could pay for

Anthropic gives only examples so far: large donations to traditional nonprofits, or direct distributions to specific populations. The main theme is jobs. The company has already committed $200 million to studying and addressing AI's effect on the labour market. It now says that "given the pace of AI progress, bolder approaches may be needed."

Anthropic says its co-founders pledged at launch to donate 80% of their equity, and that about half of its employees take part in an equity donation match. Together with the new fund, it says roughly 20% of its shares would be dedicated to the public good.

As TechCrunch notes, the move comes as public opinion of the AI industry worsens. CEO Dario Amodei has called this "fundamentally a crisis of trust." Anthropic has also been pushing other trust-building steps, such as independent model evaluations. The open question is who decides what gets funded. The company says it will publish the governance rules and valuation milestones "in the coming months", along with a public benefit report.

For a more practical look at how AI is changing the computers we buy, see our guide to choosing a laptop for local AI.