Anthropic's founders seek voting control ahead of IPO

The article reports that Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei and his six co-founders are seeking shareholder approval for a dual-class share structure ahead of the company's IPO. If approved, the founders would receive special shares carrying a combined 50.1% of the vote on most corporate matters, provided at least three of them maintain a minimum stake. Each of the seven co-founders reportedly owns approximately 2% of the company, and Amodei has publicly pledged to give away 80% of his wealth. Unlike individual super-voting arrangements at Meta (Mark Zuckerberg) and Snap (Evan Spiegel), Anthropic's approach is distinctive for its group-based structure. The special shares would carry no additional economic value. Additional provisions include Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust selecting most board members, the founders' board seats increasing from two to three, and employees receiving their own shares for tie-breaking on certain issues. Anthropic, a five-year-old AI company, was valued at $965 billion in May and recently reached a $1.5 trillion valuation on the secondary market, with its upcoming IPO expected to reflect that figure.

(Source：TechCrunch)