Anthropic seeks 50.1% voting control for co-founders ahead of IPO, The Information reports

Sept 24 : Anthropic is asking shareholders to approve a new corporate structure that would award CEO Dario Amodei and his six co-founders a combined 50.1 per cent of voting power, The Information reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the planning.

The new arrangement, which emulates a founder-control structure at Palantir, would award the co-founders a special class of shares giving them collective voting control in most corporate matters, and would apply as long as three of the seven co-founders retain a minimum number of shares in the company, according to the report.

Anthropic did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

One significant exception to the founders' control is the election of the members on Anthropic's board, which has seven seats, one of which is currently vacant, according to the report.

The company is also planning to give employees a special class of stock that would serve as tie-breaker votes on some corporate issues, the report said.

Anthropic, which has been viewed for months as the leader in enterprise AI, is preparing for what could be one of the biggest IPOs on record.

The company could push its IPO to after the US midterm elections in November, with the poll not expected to have a major impact on the offering, Reuters reported earlier this month.

The Claude maker had raised $65 billion at a post-money valuation of $965 billion in May.