Anthropic said on Sunday, October 18 that it will commit 5% of its shares to a new Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, subject to stockholder approval. The fund is set up as a wholly owned LLC rather than a charity, which the company says gives it flexibility between different forms of giving, and none of the equity it holds will be used for lobbying or political giving in the US or abroad.

The stake is designed to grow with the company: the board can add a further 2% of shares for every 50% increase in Anthropic's value above a baseline it has not yet disclosed. Anthropic says the fund could make large donations to traditional nonprofits or direct distributions to specific populations, and gave labour-market impacts as an example — it has already committed $200 million to study AI's effects on work, but says bolder approaches may be needed.

Combined with the co-founders' pledge to donate 80% of their equity and an employee equity donation-matching programme that about half of staff take part in, Anthropic says roughly 20% of its shares will now be dedicated to public purposes. The announcement lands weeks before a possible IPO as soon as November. At the company's May valuation of $965 billion, the initial 5% stake would be worth roughly $48 billion. Elon Musk responded by suggesting the shares should be given directly to the public.