Anthropic's founders seek voting control ahead of IPO

Anthropic's founders intend to keep control of the company after it goes public. According to The Information, the company is asking shareholders to approve a structure in the coming days that would give CEO Dario Amodei and his six co-founders special shares carrying a combined 50.1% of the vote on most corporate matters, as long as at least three of them retain a minimum stake.

Group control, not a solo founder

Super-voting shares are a familiar tool in Silicon Valley: Mark Zuckerberg used them to keep control of Meta, and Evan Spiegel relied on a similar structure at Snap. What stands out in Anthropic's case is that the privilege would be shared by a group of seven rather than by one founder.

The seven co-founders reportedly own about 2% of the company each, Amodei included, and have pledged to give away 80% of their wealth, a commitment Amodei announced in January alongside a warning that AI-driven wealth concentration could destabilize society. The new shares carry no extra economic value, but they would preserve the group's control once Anthropic starts trading publicly.

Checks on the founders

Other parts of the proposal keep the arrangement from becoming a simple founder takeover. Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust would still choose most of the board, and the founders' board seats would grow from two to three. Employees would receive their own stock to break ties on some issues.

A $1.5 trillion valuation

The five-year-old company was valued at $965 billion in May. It was recently valued at $1.5 trillion on the secondary market, and its upcoming IPO is expected to reflect that newer figure.