Anthropic pledges 5% of its shares to a ‘public benefit fund’

Anthropic has announced the creation of a “public benefit fund” that, it says, will give the company “increased flexibility and scale” to support projects for societal good.

The company will commit 5% of its shares to the fund, which is structured as a wholly-owned entity within Anthropic itself. There is also a mechanism for further contributions: an additional 2% of shares for every 50% increase in the company’s value.

Where the money might go

Anthropic has not laid out concrete plans, sticking to broad strokes. Among the possible uses it mentioned are “large donations to traditional nonprofits” and “direct distributions to specific populations.”

It also singled out the impact of AI on the job market — a question it has already committed $200 million to studying. Still, the company notes, “Given the pace of AI progress, bolder approaches may be needed. The Fund will have the versatility to pursue them.”

Against a backdrop of eroding trust

The move comes as public sentiment toward the AI industry grows increasingly negative. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has described the situation as “fundamentally a crisis of trust.”

As for the obvious question of who will actually decide which public benefits are worth funding, the company was evasive: it says it will share more about the fund’s structure and governance in the coming months.

Source: TechCrunch