Anthropic Co-Founders Seek Voting Majority Before Planned IPO

Anthropic is asking shareholders to approve a new corporate structure that would give CEO Dario Amodei and his six co-founders a combined 50.1% of voting power on most company matters, according to a report from The Information cited by multiple outlets . The arrangement would create a special class of shares granting the seven co-founders collective voting control, modeled on the founder-control structure used by Palantir Technologies . The control would remain in effect as long as at least three of the seven co-founders retain a minimum number of shares in the company . Key Details of the Proposal Economic vs. voting power: The seven co-founders each own approximately 2% of the company, and the new shares would carry no extra economic value—their sole purpose is to preserve the group's control after the company goes public . Board elections exception: One significant limitation is that the founders would not control the election of Anthropic's board members. The company's Long-Term Benefit Trust would retain authority to choose most of the seven-seat board, which currently has one vacant position . Employee tie-breaker shares: Anthropic also plans to give employees a separate class of stock that would serve as tie-breaker votes on certain corporate matters . Why This Matters The governance proposal comes as Anthropic prepares for what could be one of the largest IPOs on record. The company was valued at $965 billion in May and has been valued at $1.5 trillion on the secondary market . The company could push its IPO to after the US midterm elections in November . The group approach to founder control is unusual—super-voting shares are typically concentrated in a single CEO, as seen with Mark Zuckerberg at Meta or Evan Spiegel at Snap . Anthropic's structure would pool voting power among all seven co-founders. The founders have also pledged to donate 80% of their wealth, a commitment Amodei announced in January alongside a warning that AI-driven wealth concentration could destabilize society .