Report: Anthropic Plans to Grant CEO Amodei Super Voting Rights
Anthropic is planning to grant CEO Dario Amodei and other co-founders supervoting rights, aiming to ensure that the founding team can continue to lead the company after it goes public, while fending off external shareholder pressure.
On Tuesday, according to The Information citing sources familiar with the matter, the artificial intelligence startup plans to establish a class of shares with extra voting rights for Amodei and other co-founders.
At the same time, the company also intends to maintain its existing non-shareholder trustee structure and grant them, through special share classes, the right to select the majority of the board members.
Anthropic could debut on Wall Street as soon as this fall, and the market expects this IPO to become one of the largest in history.
A funding round completed in May pushed the company's valuation to $965 billion, surpassing rival OpenAI for the first time and putting it among the world's largest private enterprises.
Founders Hold Low Equity, Supervoting Rights Intended to Supplement Control
The proposed supervoting arrangement would be the first time Anthropic’s founders receive extra voting power.
This context is particularly noteworthy—compared to founders of other tech companies, Anthropic’s co-founders hold a relatively limited equity stake. According to a person close to Anthropic cited in reports, Amodei himself holds only about 2% of the company's shares.
Dual-class share structures have become quite common in founder-led tech firms, designed to give founders greater control and shield them from short-term shareholder pressure.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg holds supervoting shares, giving him about 60% of voting rights; SpaceX's dual-class share structure similarly grants founder Elon Musk significant decision-making authority.
However, according to reports, the specific details of the proposed voting arrangement are still unclear and the plan could change.
Public Benefit Company Identity, Independent Oversight Mechanisms in Place
Anthropic has a unique structural design, as it is a Public Benefit Corporation, and is legally required to balance commercial interests with social and public interests.
The company has also set up a "Long-Term Benefit Trust"—an independent oversight body dedicated to ensuring the company truly fulfills its public interest mission.
The proposed non-shareholder trustee shareholding arrangement is designed within this framework, giving this group the right to select the majority of board members to maintain an independent balance in company governance.
Both Anthropic and its competitor OpenAI have already secretly filed listing documents. How Anthropic balances commercial expansion, investor returns, and its public interest mission will be its core challenge in the capital markets.
