Anthropic seeks 50.1% voting control for co-founders ahead of IPO

Anthropic is ​asking shareholders to approve a new corporate structure that would award CEO Dario Amodei and his six co-founders a combined 50.1% of voting power, The Information reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the planning.

 

The ‌new arrangement, which emulates a ​founder-control structure at Palantir, ​would award the co-founders a special class of shares giving ​them collective voting control in most corporate matters, and would apply as long as three of the seven co-founders retain a minimum number of shares in the company, according to ​the report.

 

Anthropic did not immediately respond to a Reuters ‌request for comment.

 

One significant exception to the founders' control is ​the election of the members on Anthropic's board, which has seven seats, one of which is currently vacant, according to the report.

 

 

The company ‌is also planning to ​give employees a special class ‌of stock that would serve as tie-breaker votes on ‌some corporate issues, the report said.

 

Anthropic, which has been viewed ​for months as the leader in enterprise AI, is preparing for what could be one of ​the biggest IPOs on record.

 

The company could push its IPO to after the US midterm elections in ‌November, with the poll not expected to have a major ‌impact on the offering, Reuters reported earlier this month.

 

The Claude maker had raised $65 billion at a post-money valuation of $965 billion in May.