Anthropic Pledges 5% of Shares to Public Benefit Fund as Some Investors Float $1.5 Trillion IPO Valuation

Since Anthropic began preparing a Nasdaq listing for November at a valuation of up to $2 trillion, two things have moved: the company has pledged a slice of its equity to a new fund, and the price talk has slipped.

On Sunday, Oct. 18, Anthropic said it will commit 5% of its shares to a new Anthropic Public Benefit Fund. The company described the goal as flexibility and scale to make donations for the "public good."

How the fund is built

The fund would be a wholly owned limited liability company. It would receive an additional 2% of Anthropic's shares, at the board's discretion, for every 50% increase in the company's value above a baseline the company has not disclosed.

Anthropic said the fund could back nonprofit donations, direct distributions to specific populations and efforts to address AI's effect on the labor market. That builds on a previously announced $200 million commitment to study and address labor-market disruption.

The company said none of the fund's equity would be used for lobbying or political giving in the United States or abroad. It said it will share more on governance, structure and the valuation thresholds in the coming months, and will publish a public-benefit report on its progress.

Combined with the co-founders' pledge to donate 80% of their equity and an employee donation-matching program, roughly 20% of Anthropic's shares will be dedicated to public purposes, excluding any shares added later, the company said.

Musk wants shares handed out directly

Elon Musk, who runs rival xAI, wrote on X: "I recommend giving the shares directly to the public." Anthropic did not answer a Fox News Digital question on Monday, Oct. 19, about whether it would consider giving pledged shares directly to Americans.

Musk later pledged to give one SpaceX share to every child in America next year.

The structure leaves open who actually controls the equity. The fund is a company-owned LLC, the board decides on the extra 2% tranches, and the baseline that triggers them is unpublished.

Schmidt's stake

Bloomberg reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter, that former Google CEO Eric Schmidt owns about 1% of Anthropic. He put tens of millions of dollars into the 2021 Series A, which raised $124 million at a $461 million valuation, according to PitchBook data cited by Bloomberg.

Schmidt's representatives declined to comment. Anthropic did not immediately respond. It is unclear whether he has sold any shares since.

At the May private mark of $965 billion, 1% is about $9.7 billion. At $1.5 trillion it is about $15 billion. At $2 trillion it is about $20 billion, more than 4,300 times the Series A valuation.

Bloomberg's Billionaires Index puts Schmidt's current net worth at $57.5 billion. At the top of the range it would approach $80 billion, assuming he still holds the full stake.

Nothing in the reporting suggests any impropriety. He bought early in a Series A round, and the stake is a product of that bet.

The valuation gap

The price is not settled. Reuters reported last week that some investors discussed a valuation around $1.5 trillion at an investor meeting, below earlier expectations of roughly $2 trillion. The Next Web, citing Reuters, tied that push to weaker third-quarter results.

A different account puts third-quarter revenue at $16.8 billion, up about 45% to 46% sequentially, with hints of adjusted profitability. Those two pictures do not line up neatly, and Anthropic has not detailed the quarter in the material reviewed here.

The skeptics are blunt. Research firm New Constructs called the planned listing the year's "most ridiculous IPO" and put Anthropic's value at $144 billion. That is a fraction of even the $965 billion private round.

Anthropic's own prospectus, seen by Reuters in September, is candid about danger. Roughly 80 pages of the 261-page main body lay out risk factors. The company has said AI could pose "catastrophic or existential risks to humanity."

The race to the market

Amazon and Google are among the biggest backers. Google alone holds roughly 14%. These holders, along with Schmidt and employees, control large blocks, and what they do after the listing will matter to the share price.

OpenAI is reportedly trying to lock in a roughly $30 billion round at a valuation above $1.4 trillion before Anthropic prices.

Anthropic could begin formal marketing as early as the week of Nov. 9. Trading could start before U.S. Thanksgiving on Nov. 26, though timing and final valuation have not been confirmed.

The next concrete tests are the unpublished baseline for the fund's extra 2% tranches and the share price range Anthropic sets when marketing begins.