Anthropic pledges 5% of its shares to a public benefit fund

Anthropic, the company behind the Claude assistant, announced that it is committing 5% of its shares to the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund. According to the company's announcement, the commitment is subject to approval by its stockholders.

The figure could grow. The board of directors may add another 2% for every 50% increase in the company's value over a baseline that Anthropic does not specify, and it would do so at its discretion: the increase is not automatic. The fund is set up as an LLC, a limited liability company wholly owned by Anthropic. It is not a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the U.S. legal form for that kind of entity, and the company justifies that choice by the flexibility it gives in making donations.

Among the possible uses, Anthropic cites large gifts to conventional nonprofits and direct cash transfers to specific groups of people. It rules out using the fund for lobbying or political contributions, in the United States or abroad.

The fund adds to earlier pledges. The cofounders committed to donate 80% of what they own, and a program matches employees' donations of shares. Adding it all up, Anthropic estimates that about 20% of its shares would go to public benefit purposes. The $200 million to study how AI affects employment is an earlier, separate commitment.

Given the pace of AI progress, bolder approaches may be needed.

That line is from Anthropic itself. TechCrunch adds that Dario Amodei, the chief executive, described negative public sentiment toward AI as "fundamentally a crisis of trust."

All of the above rests on the company's own announcement; there is no independent analysis yet of the fund's design. For people who use Claude in Mexico, no service or price changes. What remains to be seen is whether stockholders approve the commitment, and when, and what valuation would trigger the additional 2%.