Anthropic has committed 5% of its shares to a new public benefit fund, a stake that could be worth $75 billion to $100 billion at the valuations under discussion for its planned IPO, and the pledge has set up a very public split with Elon Musk over how the AI boom’s winnings should reach ordinary people.
The Claude maker announced the fund last month as it readies one of the biggest IPOs in history as a public benefit corporation, a legal structure that requires management to balance broader public interests with profit. Investors are weighing a valuation that could reach roughly $2 trillion, though some are eyeing a figure closer to $1.5 trillion.
Anthropic says the fund will give it flexibility and scale to make donations for the benefit of humanity, including direct distributions to specific populations and work on AI’s impact on jobs, building on a previously announced $200 million commitment to study labor-market disruption. The fund will be set up as a wholly owned limited liability company and can receive an additional 2% of the company’s shares, at the board’s discretion, for every 50% increase in its value above a baseline that has yet to be disclosed. The company says none of the fund’s equity will be used for lobbying or political giving in the United States or abroad.
Combined with its co-founders’ pledge to donate 80% of their own equity and an employee donation-matching program, roughly 20% of Anthropic’s shares are earmarked for public purposes.
Musk’s answer: hand shares directly to the public
Musk, the world’s richest person with a net worth near $1 trillion, answered with a rival model of his own, pledging to give one SpaceX share “to every kid in America” next year. “This will be the first of many,” he said, adding: “Giving shares, which are stakes in the future economy, directly to the people is the way.”
That promise would be worth roughly $11 billion at current share prices, based on census figures showing about 72 million children in America. Musk held about 6.42 billion SpaceX shares as of June, and most of his philanthropy has run through the Musk Foundation, which reportedly holds more than $14 billion in assets.
The dueling pledges land as the White House rolls out “Trump Accounts,” a cradle-to-adulthood program that gives U.S. citizens born between 2025 and 2028 a government-funded $1,000 investment account, and as security breaches involving AI systems and warnings from industry leaders about the technology’s risks feed public anxiety over job losses.
JBizNews Desk | San Francisco
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