Disrupt 2026: OpenAI, Anthropic, Replit, and more take over 6 industry stages. 25% off tickets now
Disrupt ticket savings of up to $200 + 50% off a second ends Sept 25, 11:59 p.m. PT. REGISTER HERE.
Anthropic’s founders seek voting control ahead of IPO
Anthropic’s founders want to stay in charge after the company goes public. According to The Information, the company is asking shareholders to approve a structure “in the coming days” that would give CEO Dario Amodei and his six co-founders special shares carrying a combined 50.1% of the vote on most corporate matters, as long as at least three of them keep a minimum stake.
This isn’t a new idea; super-voting shares are how Mark Zuckerberg kept control of Meta, and how Evan Spiegel maintained his hold of Snap. The list is long. What’s unusual is the group approach.
Why do it? The seven co-founders reportedly own just 2% of the company apiece, Amodei included, and have pledged to give away 80% of their wealth, a commitment the CEO announced in January alongside a warning that AI-driven wealth concentration could destabilize society. The new shares carry no extra economic value, but they’d preserve the group’s control once the company starts trading publicly.
There are twists, too: Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust would still choose most of the board; the founders’ board seats would grow from two to three; and employees would get their own stock to break ties on some issues.
Five-year-old Anthropic was valued at $965 billion in May. The company was recently valued at $1.5 trillion on the secondary market , and its upcoming IPO is expected to reflect that new valuation.
Your next big connection is at Disrupt. Connect with 10,000+ founders, VCs, operators, and tech leaders. Explore tomorrow’s breakthroughs, hear what’s shaping tech today, and save up to $200 by Sept. 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
Newsletters
Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news
Related
AI Anthropic to pay Akamai $11.6 billion over seven years in cloud deal Aditya Mehta
AI Astra and Opus just passed Turing’s other test Tim Fernholz
AI ElevenLabs’ CEO on margins, IPO timing, and telling customers they’re talking to a bot Connie Loizos
Latest in AI
AI Crusoe abandons $1.25B plan to use Boom turbines at AI data centers Kirsten Korosec
AI Unsecured OpenAI agents posted 53 user images on the internet without the lab’s knowledge Tim Fernholz
In Brief Meta opens early access program for new Muse features Sarah Perez