Anthropic is pushing for shareholder approval of a dual-class share structure that would hand its seven co-founders majority voting control ahead of its highly anticipated public market debut.
Under the proposed terms, CEO Dario Amodei and his co-founding team would collectively secure a 50.1% voting stake across most corporate matters, according to a report from The Information.
The arrangement mirrors a collective-control framework famously deployed by Palantir Technologies, though Anthropic’s version carries distinctive structural features that set it apart from typical founder share arrangements.
The co-founders would hold their special voting stock through a separate limited liability company, with the structure remaining intact provided at least three of the seven co-founders retain a threshold number of shares.
The proposed governance overhaul is explicitly designed to shield the founding group from prospective public market pressure, particularly notable given that each co-founder holds an unusually low individual equity stake.
Despite concentrating voting power among the founders, the proposed structure preserves the influence of Anthropic’s existing Long-Term Benefit Trust, an independent governance body that counts former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke among its members.
The trust would retain its authority to appoint a majority of the company’s seven-seat board of directors, though the co-founders’ board appointment allotment would expand from two seats to three under the new framework.
To further manage potential governance impasses, Anthropic also plans to issue a distinct class of stock to employees that would serve as tie-breaking votes on select corporate matters.
The new founder shares carry no additional economic interest, a structure that allows leadership to maintain strategic oversight while still honoring individual pledges to donate 80% of their personal wealth.
The shareholder vote is being staged as the artificial intelligence developer prepares for a stock market listing now expected to occur in late October or November of this year.
Anthropic was last valued at $965 billion in a May funding round, and the company is reportedly targeting a valuation of approximately $2 trillion for its public debut.
A successful listing at that figure would make Anthropic the most valuable public benefit corporation ever to enter U.S. capital markets, representing a landmark moment for the AI sector and mission-driven corporate governance alike.
