Anthropic’s founders hope to remain in charge after the company goes public. The company is asking shareholders “in the coming days” to approve a structure that would give CEO Dario Amodei and his six co-founders special shares that would give them a total of 50.1% voting power on most corporate matters, as long as at least three of them maintain a minimum stake, The Information said.
This isn’t a new idea. Overvoting stocks show how Mark Zuckerberg maintained control of the meta and how Evan Spiegel maintained control of the snap. The list is long. What is unusual is the group approach.
Why do we do that? The seven co-founders, including Amodei, each own just 2% of the company and have reportedly pledged to donate 80% of their assets, a commitment the CEO announced in January with a warning that the concentration of wealth through AI could destabilize society. The new shares have no special economic value, but once the company begins trading publicly, it will maintain the group’s control.
There’s also a twist. Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust will still select the majority of the board. The number of founder board seats will increase from two to three. The employee will then take his or her share to terminate the relationship on some issues.
Five-year-old Anthropic was valued at $965 billion in May. The company was recently valued at $1.5 trillion in the secondary market, and its upcoming IPO is expected to reflect that new valuation.
