True to its public benefit corporation mission, Anthropic just announced it is establishing the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund to invest in causes that serve the public.
Here are the key details quoted from Anthropic’s announcement:
- Subject to stockholder approval, 5% of Anthropic’s shares will be committed today, with an additional 2% added at the board’s discretion for every 50% increase in the company’s value above a set baseline.
- This builds on commitments our co-founders and employees have already made. When Anthropic was founded, our co-founders pledged to donate 80% of their equity holdings, and since founding we have also operated an equity donation match program that allows employees to pledge equity which Anthropic matches. Approximately half of our employees participate in this program. When combined with today’s announcement, roughly 20% of Anthropic shares will be dedicated to the public good, plus any additional percentage that could be added if the company reaches specific valuation milestones.
- Because of the way the Fund is structured, the more Anthropic grows, the larger the share of the company that can be dedicated expressly to the public good. It is common practice for tech companies to offer escalating compensation awards to their executives. We are instead directing that equity to the public benefit.
- We’re establishing the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund as a wholly-owned LLC—rather than a 501(c)(3) or other format—to give adjustability between different forms of giving. None of the Anthropic equity held by the LLC will be used for lobbying or political giving, in the US or abroad.
Elon musk applauds the idea but recommends Sending shares directly to americans
Elon Musk tweeted support for Anthropic’s idea, but recommended just sending the Anthropic shares directly to Americans as he apparently will with SpaceX shares to American children.
similar to american ai sovereign wealth fund already proposed by bernie sanders and Pres. trump
Anthropic’s idea is not a new one. Both President Trump and Bernie Sanders — yes, strange bedfellows — have proposed the analogous idea of establishing AI sovereign wealth funds to use profits from AI to pay dividends (or other benefits) to Americans. Although an American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund under Trump and Sanders would involve government oversight, Anthropic is establishing the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund as its own voluntary measure.
The rationale is the same: increased values of AI companies’ stock (or other profit they generate from AI) will be shared with the American people. The precise way(s) need to be figured out. Probably some may prefer the direct share approach proposed by Elon Musk.
Should anthropic consider allocating a portion of the shares originally planned for its ipo to gift to the American people
Since we seem to entering uncharted territory, one of the more intriguing ideas would be for Anthropic to allocate some of its shares planned for the IPO as “public benefit” shares that would be gifted to eligible Americans.
Musk’s idea of starting first with American children might be a good method of distribution. Or perhaps the reverse: retired Americans who meet certain criteria.
Granted, it seems like a wild idea. But no more wild than the ones already on the table.
