Few public companies claim to have the future of humanity on the line while making mundane choices about board composition.
Not so with Anthropic. Having warned that its artificial intelligence could one day cure cancer or kill up to 8 billion people, Anthropic has set up a complex plan for who can govern the company as its technology rapidly progresses, its Monday IPO filing showed.
Its expected $1.5 trillion valuation would make Anthropic the world’s most highly valued public benefit corporation, a setup under Delaware law that means the AI lab must balance investor interests with promoting a wider good.
More than fine print, Anthropic’s setup may have big implications for investors and a public increasingly adopting the San Francisco-based company’s AI. The details show how Anthropic has insulated itself from investor pressure so it can pursue what it says is best for humanity.
Anthropic gave 50.1% voting power over certain matters to its seven co-founders, who, according to the filing, are ”distinctly equipped to be stewards of our mission,” Reuters previously reported. Though an independent trust will control a majority of board seats, the co-founders’ supervoting power will extend to elections of the remaining directors and shareholder proposals generally.
The Monday filing revealed still more intricacies to overseeing a business that Anthropic expects will outlive the tight-knit crew that created it.
Once most of its co-founders are out of the picture and their ”Class F” supervoting stock is gone, Anthropic’s board will divide into three similarly sized groups, serving three-year terms.
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