Anthropic commits 5% of shares to Public Benefit Fund

Anthropic says it had been carrying out public-benefit work inside the company, alongside its commercial mission of building reliable, interpretable, and controllable AI systems. The Anthropic Public Benefit Fund was set up as a way to pursue that work with more flexibility and at greater scale. It is not a nonprofit: it is a limited liability company wholly owned by Anthropic, and the shares it holds are excluded from lobbying and political donations in the US and abroad.

The fund is expected to consider large donations to existing nonprofits and direct funding to specific groups. It is also meant to have room to research and respond to the risk that AI destabilizes employment for many workers. Its scale is tied to Anthropic's valuation: the commitment begins at 5% of shares, and for every 50% increase in company value over a set baseline, the board can add up to 2% more.

The announcement drew a public reaction from Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceXAI, who wrote that he recommends giving the shares directly to the public rather than routing them through the new entity.