Artificial Intelligence
Anthropic plans worker fund as Musk touts share giveaway
Anthropic said it would seek shareholder approval to place 5 percent of its equity into a fund that could back charities or examine direct payments, while Elon Musk proposed giving shares away directly.
- Anthropic said it planned to place 5 percent of its shares into the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, subject to shareholder approval.
- The company said the fund would either support traditional non-profits or explore direct payments to certain groups.
- Anthropic said the vehicle would be a wholly owned LLC subsidiary, and that any extra share grants would depend on board discretion.
- Elon Musk said on X that Anthropic should give the shares directly to the public, and later outlined a plan to give one SpaceX share to each of roughly 72 million children in the United States.
Anthropic said it planned to transfer 5 percent of its equity into the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, pending shareholder approval. The fund would either donate to established charities or look into direct payments to certain populations.
The company said the issue it wanted to address was labour-market disruption. Chief executive Dario Amodei has repeatedly warned about upheaval from faster AI systems, and Anthropic said it had already committed $200 million to studying those effects.
Anthropic said the fund would be set up as a wholly owned LLC subsidiary rather than a tax-exempt non-profit. The company said that structure would give it more flexibility, while board-controlled top-ups would not be fixed in advance and more details would follow later.
Control of Anthropic’s board rests with the Long-Term Benefit Trust, which does not hold an economic stake but appoints most directors. After an IPO, the founders are also expected to keep 50.1 percent of votes on major decisions through a special share.
Musk replied on X that Anthropic should hand the shares to the public instead, and later said he planned to give one SpaceX share to each child in the United States next year. The article also pointed to OpenAI’s foundation structure and Google’s philanthropy as comparisons, noting that Google’s AI Opportunity Fund does not make direct payments to affected people.
Named in this story
People
- Dario Amodei
- Anthropic chief executive who warned about labour disruption
- Elon Musk
- responded on X and proposed a direct share giveaway
- Sam Altman
- the OpenAI chief whom the board tried to remove in 2023
Companies
- Anthropic
- planned the fund and is preparing for an IPO
- SpaceX
- the source of the shares Musk said he would distribute
- OpenAI
- used as the main comparison for governance and restructuring
- Microsoft
- offered to hire Altman during the OpenAI board crisis
- xAI
- Musk’s AI company that dropped Public Benefit Corporation status in 2024
- cited as using conventional philanthropy instead of direct share-linked payouts
Organisations
- Anthropic Public Benefit Fund
- the planned subsidiary that would hold shares and consider donations or payouts
- Long-Term Benefit Trust
- holds a majority of Anthropic’s board appointments
- OpenAI Foundation
- holds part of OpenAI Group and appoints its board
How the source tells it
The article was mostly explanatory and comparative, with a mildly boosterish edge in the way it set Anthropic against rival companies.
- competitive boosterism the fund was presented through repeated comparisons that cast Anthropic as more generous than peers