Anthropic to give 5% of its shares to a public benefit fund

Anthropic said 5% of its shares will go to a new “public benefit fund” — a wholly owned entity inside the company — with an option to add 2% more for every 50% rise in its valuation. The fund is meant to give Anthropic more flexibility and room to operate at scale as it backs projects such as large nonprofit donations or direct payments to specific populations.

That mandate overlaps with a separate $200 million commitment to study AI’s effect on the job market. Anthropic argued that the fast pace of AI progress may call for bolder moves than that, and said the new fund is designed to give it room to pursue them. The company has not yet detailed who will decide which causes to fund, saying more on its structure and governance is coming in the months ahead.

The announcement comes amid worsening public sentiment toward the AI industry — something Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called “fundamentally a crisis of trust.”

Why it matters

The fund gives Anthropic a formal, flexible vehicle to respond to AI’s social fallout — including its impact on the labor market — at a moment when public trust in the industry is under pressure.