Anthropic Pledges 5% Of Its Shares To Public Benefit Fund

Claude developer Anthropic has pledged to commit 5% of its shares to a new public benefit fund, which will offer it more flexibility and scale to make donations for the ‘public good.’ This proposed fund will be a wholly owned limited liability company and will be entitled to 2% of Anthropic’s shares. The board has also decided to do this every time the company’s valuation goes up by 50% above the baseline, which is yet to be made public.

This decision comes just as Anthropic plans one of the biggest IPOs in history as a public benefit corporation (PBC). A PBC is a legal structure that mandates the management remain cognizant of not just the profit motive but also of the broader interests of the organisation.

Anthropic describes itself as a safety-first AI lab and has dedicated 80 pages of the 261-page main body of its prospectus to outlining the risks associated with AI. It has previously cautioned that AI could pose a catastrophic threat to humanity. Therefore, its decision to become a PBC has not surprised market observers or industry rivals.

In a blog post, Anthropic said its Public Benefit Fund could back initiatives introduced by nonprofit organisations and address the labour market challenges brought on by AI, among others. Not everyone agrees with the Claude owner’s plan, as Elon Musk, who owns peer firm xAI, suggested it would be better for Anthropic to directly give the shares to the public.

Anthropic said that the Fund would focus on studying the labour market disruptions as a result of AI, after previously pledging $200 million to study and address these challenges. AI replacing humans in the workplace is one of the biggest challenges the global economy faces today. The first to go are tech jobs, as these technology companies prefer AI models which are learn, adapt and deliver more quickly than humans.

US employers announced 97,006 job cuts in May, of which 40% of the layoffs were linked to AI. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, whose own company slashed 30,000 corporate jobs last year due to AI, however, remained optimistic, explaining that increasing use of AI would lead to labour shortages, not replacement of humans.

Last week, the IMF cautioned that as the AI investment boom ends, growth and financial stability of the global economy are at risk. The international financial organisation raised its global growth forecast for 2026 to 3.1% in October from 3.0% in July, as large volumes of AI investment countered the volatile oil markets. However, the Fund also said that a considerable drop in such investments could lead to a sharp fall ⁠in asset prices, pulling down global GDP by 1.1% in 2028.

The IMF also warned that a potential pullback in AI investment will reduce trade. Trade of AI goods jumped 29% between 2023 and 2025 and tripled the 8.3% global trade growth rate over the same period.

Anthropic has also maintained that no equity from its Fund will be directed towards political lobbying, on both domestic and international soil. US policymakers are closely monitoring AI development, and these tech companies are more careful that the technology they are building is properly regulated.

Claude’s co-founders have pledged that 80% of their equity and an employee donation matching program will be donated. 20% of Anthropic’s shares will be set aside for public purposes. The company said that it would divulge more details about the Fund in the upcoming months, in relation to its governance, structure and the valuation thresholds that could expand its ownership stake.