Anthropic sets November IPO date

Anthropic is expected to list its stock on Wall Street later this month, positioning the company for one of the largest initial public offerings in recent history. The debut will place the maker of the Claude chatbot under the scrutiny of public markets while it pursues a dual mandate of safe artificial intelligence development and profit growth.

The company formed in 2021 when a group of employees departed OpenAI to establish a new lab focused on safety. That foundational work now culminates in a public listing that will test how investors react to a frontier AI lab with an unorthodox governance model.

Anthropic is registered as a public benefit corporation, a legal status that requires the company to balance shareholder interests with its stated mission. This differs from traditional corporations that primarily focus on maximizing shareholder value. In its S-1 filing, Anthropic outlined its tripartite goals, which include the pecuniary interest of stockholders, the best interest of those materially affected by its conduct, and the company purpose.

Jay Ritter, a professor emeritus at the University of Florida, noted that only a small fraction of publicly traded companies hold this status. Other examples include eyewear retailer Warby Parker and the privately held outdoor apparel company Patagonia. Ritter observed that public benefit corporations can allocate profits toward safety measures without facing immediate backlash from investors.

The ownership structure ensures that the seven founders retain majority control of the company. They collectively hold 50.1% of the voting rights, meaning regular shareholders will not have a direct say in operations. This mirrors a trend in Big Tech where founders like Mark Zuckerberg at Meta and Elon Musk at SpaceX maintain dominant voting power.

In 2023, Anthropic established the Long-Term Benefit Trust to provide additional oversight. This body consists of five subject-matter experts who hold no financial stake in the company stock. They possess special non-financial shares that grant them the authority to appoint four of the seven directors on the company board.

The trust includes Neil Buddy Shah, the CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and Ben Bernanke, the former chair of the Federal Reserve. One seat on the trust remains vacant. Anthropic warned in its SEC filing that the trust may exercise its power in ways that shareholders might find adverse to their interests.

CEO Dario Amodei and the company have emphasized the risks of AI causing harm if mismanaged. The IPO filing contains more than 90 pages of risk disclosures, ranging from potential misuse by bad actors to the possibility of existential risks to humanity. This level of detail contrasts with the typical financial projections in such documents.

Financial analysts point to the tension between the company's mission and the pressures of the public market. Gil Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, stated that Anthropic is explicit about choosing not to maximize shareholder value when necessary. He noted that the governance structure will be stress-tested if earnings fall short of expectations or if disagreements arise between the board and founders.

Jay Goldberg, a senior analyst at Seaport Research Partners, described the corporate governance structure as the most unusual aspect of the filing. He believes the Long-Term Benefit Trust and the founders will hold effective permanent control of the company. The full implications of this structure will become apparent over time as the company navigates its public life.