AI firm Anthropic to commit 5% of shares to fund for ‘public good’

Anthropic has said it will commit 5% of its shares to a fund for the “public good”, as the AI developer behind the Claude chatbot seeks to bolster its appeal before its stock market listing.

The company announced it would commit the shares, worth around $48bn (£36bn) at its latest valuation in May, subject to shareholder approval. It will add a further 2% of its stock to the fund for every 50% increase in its value above an undisclosed baseline.

The fund will allow Anthropic to “explore large donations to traditional nonprofits or direct distributions to specific populations”, the company said.

The move comes amid growing public nervousness about AI, from the threat to human labour to the impact on the environment and its influence on social behaviours.

“AI may generate enormous economic value, but it could also cause instability for many workers,” Anthropic wrote in a blogpost.

It said that while it had already committed $200m to addressing the issue, “given the pace of AI progress, bolder approaches may be needed. The fund will have the versatility to pursue them.”

The company, which is preparing to list on the stock market, has called for a slowdown in breakneck development of AI, a warning later echoed by rivals such as OpenAI.

Anthropic was valued at $965bn in May when it raised $65bn in a funding round. The company is reportedly considering a $1.5tn valuation when it floats on the stock market, with an IPO planned for November.

Last week, Anthropic said some of its AI models could soon become “self-replicating” and find ways to infiltrate internet-connected devices such as smart fridges and automatic vacuum cleaners.

It said that once this happens, the models would be able to power themselves without the need of datacentres.

Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and founder of SpaceX, responded to Anthropic’s plans for a public benefit fund on social media by pledging to give some of his own shares away.

“I recommend giving the shares directly to the public,” he wrote. “This is what I will be doing.”

He later announced: “Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many.”

Shares in SpaceX, which is listed on the Nasdaq in the US, rose by 1% in pre-market trading on Monday. The company has lost about 9% of its value since it joined the stock market in June.

OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT, also reportedly engaged in early talks to give a 5% stake in its organisation to the US government.

Anthropic, which was founded in 2021 by seven former OpenAI employees, was established as a public benefit corporation. It means that all of the company’s directors must balance financial returns with its public interest mission.