Anthropic prepares supervoting power for founders ahead of IPO

Anthropic has been preparing to give CEO Dario Amodei and other co-founders a class of stock with extra voting power to help insulate them from external shareholder pressure, the Information reported on Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the matter.

The company is also planning to maintain its existing body of ‌non-shareholder trustees with ⁠a ⁠special class of stock to elect a majority of members to the company's board ​of directors, according to the report.

The specifics of the voting arrangements could not ​be learned, and the plans could still change, the report said.


Anthropic did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Such a move ​would mark the first time Anthropic's leaders ⁠would have extra ‌voting power. The Claude maker's co-founders hold relatively ​small ownership ​in the company, compared to founders of other tech ⁠firms.

Amodei himself owns only about 2% of the company, ​the Information said, citing a person close to ​Anthropic.

But dual-class structures aimed at giving supervoting power to leaders are common among founder-led companies, and is designed to give founders greater control and insulate them from short-term shareholder pressure.

SpaceX's dual-class structure, for instance, gives founder and CEO Elon Musk significant voting power. At Meta, ‌CEO Mark Zuckerberg holds about 60% voting control by way of his ownership of super-voting shares.

The reported move ​at Anthropic comes ​as the company ⁠prepares for a potential initial public offering later this year, which is expected to be one of the biggest market debuts in history.

Anthropic is ​structured as a public benefit corporation, which is legally required to balance commercial success with social and public benefit. The company also has a Long-Term Benefit Trust, an independent oversight body that exists to make sure the startup delivers on its public benefit mission.