Anthropic commits 5% of its shares to a new public benefit fund

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Anthropic has announced plans for a public benefit fund. TechCrunch's Anthony Ha reports that the company will commit five percent of its shares to the fund, which will be set up as a wholly owned entity within the company. Readers should note that Anthropic makes Claude, so this is the company announcing its own plans

There is a growth clause too. Anthropic may add a further two percent of its shares for every 50 percent rise in the company's value. Ideas mentioned include large donations to traditional nonprofits and direct payments to specific groups of people

The company has previously committed 200 million dollars to studying AI's impact on jobs, and says bolder approaches may now be needed. That ties in with the workforce report we discussed recently, which showed junior hiring falling sharply

The announcement comes amid growing public hostility towards the AI industry, which chief executive Dario Amodei has described as a crisis of trust. Details on structure and governance, including who decides what gets funded, will follow in the coming months

Committing equity rather than a fixed sum is an interesting approach, because the fund grows if the company does well. The governance details will matter most, though. A fund like this only builds trust if decisions are transparent and independent

Can AI companies rebuild public trust with funds like this? And who should decide how the money is spent?

Anthropic says it's committing 5% of its shares to a 'public benefit fund' | TechCrunchtechcrunch.com