Anthropic files for Nasdaq IPO, founders pledge 80% of stakes to charity while retaining control

Anthropic submitted an S-1 registration to list on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol ANT, with analysts estimating a potential valuation of $1.5-$2 trillion. The filing reveals that the company's seven co-founders will collectively donate 80% of their personal equity—about $80 billion based on the latest private-funding valuation—to charitable foundations. Despite this massive giveaway, the founders will retain decisive control through a single Class F share held by an LLC they control, which confers 50.1% of the firm’s voting rights.

Each founder possesses roughly 240 million ordinary shares, translating to $13.7-$14.4 billion at the proposed price of $58.90 per share; at a $2 trillion market cap, those stakes could rise to $27-$29 billion each. Tom Brown, former OpenAI engineer, holds the biggest slice at about 244 million shares, valued near $24 billion under a $1.5 trillion valuation. The co-founders together own about 1.69 billion shares, roughly 10% of Anthropic’s total equity.