Anthropic’s seven co-founders are preparing to sell 3,378,378 shares each in the IPO.
Based on the offering price range of $70–78 per share, each would cash out approximately $236 million to $264 million. At the midpoint of $74 per share, the seven could sell a combined total of about $1.75 billion worth of stock.
But after the sale, they would still each hold approximately 3.2% of the Class A shares, or about 22.4% combined.
The truly interesting part is the voting arrangement.
Before the IPO, Anthropic will issue one special Class F share to Founder LLC, which was set up by the founders. This single share will give it fixed control over 50.1% of the voting rights held by the company’s ordinary shareholders.
The seven founders will exercise this power together through Founder LLC, with no one among them holding a larger share of control.
Meanwhile, the Class N shares held by strategic investors such as Amazon and Google carry no voting rights for ordinary shareholders. The Long-Term Benefit Trust also holds the power, through Class T shares, to appoint and remove a majority of the board.
After the IPO, public investors will be able to buy shares in Anthropic, but their ability to exercise actual control over the company will be quite limited.
The buyers’ side is also interesting.
A donor-advised fund established by Netflix co-founder and Anthropic board member Reed Hastings has expressed interest in buying up to $300 million worth of shares; another board member, Christopher Liddell, and his spouse plan to purchase up to $3 million through a trust.
Note that these are only non-binding indications of interest, not completed subscriptions.
The seven founders are Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, Tom Brown, Jack Clark, Jared Kaplan, Sam McCandlish, and Christopher Olah. They left OpenAI in 2021 and co-founded Anthropic.
This IPO could push the company’s valuation to $1.4 trillion.
In terms of its capital structure, Anthropic has done something quite unusual: the founders can cash out some of their wealth at the time of the IPO, and outside investors can share in the company’s economic returns, but the company’s long-term control has not been handed over as part of the listing.
Buying shares can give you a right to returns, but not necessarily the power to make decisions about the company.
Based on the offering price range of $70–78 per share, each would cash out approximately $236 million to $264 million. At the midpoint of $74 per share, the seven could sell a combined total of about $1.75 billion worth of stock.
But after the sale, they would still each hold approximately 3.2% of the Class A shares, or about 22.4% combined.
The truly interesting part is the voting arrangement.
Before the IPO, Anthropic will issue one special Class F share to Founder LLC, which was set up by the founders. This single share will give it fixed control over 50.1% of the voting rights held by the company’s ordinary shareholders.
The seven founders will exercise this power together through Founder LLC, with no one among them holding a larger share of control.
Meanwhile, the Class N shares held by strategic investors such as Amazon and Google carry no voting rights for ordinary shareholders. The Long-Term Benefit Trust also holds the power, through Class T shares, to appoint and remove a majority of the board.
After the IPO, public investors will be able to buy shares in Anthropic, but their ability to exercise actual control over the company will be quite limited.
The buyers’ side is also interesting.
A donor-advised fund established by Netflix co-founder and Anthropic board member Reed Hastings has expressed interest in buying up to $300 million worth of shares; another board member, Christopher Liddell, and his spouse plan to purchase up to $3 million through a trust.
Note that these are only non-binding indications of interest, not completed subscriptions.
The seven founders are Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, Tom Brown, Jack Clark, Jared Kaplan, Sam McCandlish, and Christopher Olah. They left OpenAI in 2021 and co-founded Anthropic.
This IPO could push the company’s valuation to $1.4 trillion.
In terms of its capital structure, Anthropic has done something quite unusual: the founders can cash out some of their wealth at the time of the IPO, and outside investors can share in the company’s economic returns, but the company’s long-term control has not been handed over as part of the listing.
Buying shares can give you a right to returns, but not necessarily the power to make decisions about the company.