Anthropic pledges 5% of its shares to public benefit fund, eyes AI job disruption
The AI developer is creating a wholly owned fund for public causes. More equity can be added as the company's value rises. The money could help workers displaced by AI.
Archive image · Photo: TechCrunch / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Artificial intelligence developer Anthropic on Sunday announced a public benefit fund. The fund is a wholly owned entity and will start with 5% of the company's shares. Stockholders still have to approve the plan. The board may add another 2% at its discretion for every 50% increase in the company's value, according to TechCrunch and Al Jazeera.
Anthropic said the money could go to large donations to traditional nonprofits or to direct payments to specific groups of people. It named AI-driven labor market disruption as one possible focus. The company has already committed $200 million to that issue. The fund may not be used for lobbying or political donations. Anthropic has not said who will decide how the money is spent. It plans to share details on structure and governance "in the coming months."
The announcement comes as public skepticism of AI grows. CEO Dario Amodei has, according to TechCrunch, called the backlash "fundamentally a crisis of trust." Al Jazeera reported that Anthropic is also preparing a U.S. stock market listing before the end of the year. Analysts expect it to value the company at more than $2 trillion.