Anthropic plans public-benefit fund to study direct payments to workers hit by AI

Anthropic plans to put 5% of its shares into a new 'Anthropic Public Benefit Fund.' After shareholder approval, the fund would make large donations to traditional nonprofits or explore direct payments to 'specific groups,' focused on addressing AI's impact on the job market. The company has already invested $200 million to study labor-market effects. The fund also includes a valuation-linked top-up mechanism: each time the company's valuation exceeds a set baseline by 50%, the fund can receive another 2% of shares, but this top-up is at the board's discretion, and the valuation thresholds and governance details have not been disclosed. The fund will not be registered as a tax-exempt nonprofit but set up as a wholly owned LLC subsidiary. Anthropic says this makes fund distribution more flexible and promises it will not be used for lobbying or political donations. This means control stays with the company, especially as an IPO approaches. By comparison, the OpenAI Foundation holds 26% of the for-profit entity and has the right to appoint board members, but its power proved limited in the 2023 firing of Altman. For policy researchers and public-interest institutions focused on AI's employment impact, this arrangement offers a path to compensate affected workers through equity returns, but the LLC structure means weaker external oversight than a nonprofit foundation, with the company leading the actual recipients and timing. Elon Musk responded on X that shares should be given directly to the public, and said he plans to give one SpaceX share to each of about 72 million US children next year, without specifying how the distribution would work.