TL;DR

Anthropic plans to go public without handing control to public shareholders. According to its IPO filing, seen by Reuters, a new “Founder LLC” made up of the company’s seven co-founders will steer a single Class F share worth 50.1% of the vote on major decisions. The filing says the arrangement could lead to choices that cut against investors’ financial interests, and that is the point.

How the structure works

The co-founders, including chief executive Dario Amodei, act by majority vote inside the LLC. Their Class F share then decides key corporate questions, among them the election of some directors. Ordinary Class A shares carry one vote each, but with the founders holding a built-in majority, everyday investors may have little real influence. Strategic partners get shares with minimal voting rights, one of five share classes in total.

Anthropic also stays a public benefit corporation under Delaware law, which lets its leadership weigh the interests of humanity alongside those of shareholders. The filing warns that this may produce decisions that hurt “the value of our Class A common stock”.

The board is split two ways. Daniela Amodei, Anthropic’s president and board chair, will face election alongside her brother and a third, still unnamed director, with both the Class F and Class A holders voting. Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust, which counts Ben Bernanke, once chair of the US Federal Reserve, among its trustees, picks the other four.

A founder can be removed from the LLC for leaving, dying, selling too many shares or for “cause”. The special voting share begins to phase out once two or fewer founders, or their successors, remain.

Pay and pledges

Dario Amodei received nearly $18m for 2025, mostly in stock and options, and Daniela Amodei $16.4m. Each co-founder has also promised to give 80% of the Anthropic stock they personally hold to charitable causes. The filing also says Anthropic has passed on image and video generation to keep computing power for research and safety work.

Context

This is not the only story from the prospectus. Reuters first reported that roughly 80 of its 261 main pages cover risk factors, including existential ones. The Guardian reports Anthropic is aiming for a valuation above $2tn. Reuters contrasts the plan with SpaceX, whose own flotation concentrated power in Elon Musk; Anthropic spreads it across a group that has stayed together since leaving OpenAI in 2020.

Looking forward

Founder-controlled listings are nothing new; this one comes with a written warning that shareholders may lose out for the sake of the mission. Investors weighing an allocation, UK funds among them, will need to decide whether that is a governance red flag or a credible safety commitment. Anthropic declined to comment to Reuters.