Anthropic says it will commit 5% of its shares to 'public benefit fund'

Anthropic says 5% of its shares will go into a fund for the “public good,” with money aimed at nonprofits and work on AI’s effect on jobs. The Claude maker says none of those shares will be used for lobbying or political donations in the US or abroad.

There’s also room for more. Anthropic said its board could hand the fund another 2% of the company if it chooses, a detail that makes the gesture look less like a one-off and more like part of the company’s setup.

The timing is not subtle. The announcement lands as Anthropic prepares for a possible stock market listing that could value it at more than $1tn. And that listing pitch is arriving while the whole AI sector is under heavy pressure over safety and its wider effects on society and the economy.

Anthropic has already acknowledged that risk in unusually blunt language. In its IPO filing, the company reportedly said AI could create “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity.” At the same time, it is telling investors that the business is growing fast enough to justify the gigantic numbers swirling around it.

Last week, Anthropic said revenue jumped 45% to $16.8bn in the three months to the end of September. That is the other side of the story here: a company talking about existential danger while also selling a future of enormous profits, huge spending and, inevitably, a lot of capital chasing both.