Anthropic Puts 5 Percent of Its Shares Into a Fund for AI's Job Fallout
The AI company is setting aside equity to study and address AI-driven job losses, right before a planned IPO.
Anthropic said this week it is putting 5 percent of its shares into a new public benefit fund, and the board can add another 2 percent every time the company's value rises 50 percent above a baseline it hasn't made public yet. The fund is aimed at a specific problem: the job disruption AI is causing. Anthropic already put $200 million into studying AI's effects on work, and the company said plainly that, given the pace of AI progress, bolder approaches may be needed.
What the Fund Is Actually Promising Workers
The fund will be set up as a wholly owned LLC rather than a tax-exempt nonprofit, which Anthropic says gives it room to move between different kinds of giving. It could make large donations to traditional nonprofits, or it could go out as direct distributions to specific groups of people. The equity behind it won't be used for lobbying or political giving, here or anywhere else. Anthropic says it will lay out the actual structure, governance and valuation milestones in the coming months, and will report on progress in a public benefit report after that.
This is landing against a backdrop worth noting: an August Pew Research Center report found 71 percent of adults think AI will mean fewer jobs in the U.S. over the next two years. That's the anxiety this fund is being pitched into.
The timing isn't a coincidence. Anthropic told investors its third quarter revenue hit $16.8 billion ahead of a planned IPO reportedly set for November. Lise Buyer, a partner at IPO advisory firm Class V Group, told CNBC the move is both something a company has to do to prepare for an IPO and something that's beneficial from an image perspective, especially with AI reshaping the jobs market. She also said the fund could look good if it actually helps workers retrain or find new jobs when the technology displaces them, but added, of course, it is also to burnish their reputation at a time when AI is coming under significant scrutiny.
Why I'd Rather Build My Own Thing Than Wait on Someone Else's Fund
I started my insurance agency because I was the one bringing in the business while handing a big chunk of every commission to an agency that claimed it was supporting me and wasn't. I decided that if I was doing the work, I was going to control it and keep what I earned. I've started more than one company since, and they're all still running. That's the lens I look at this through.
A fund with a board that decides the giving, a baseline valuation nobody's been told, and a governance structure that's coming in some unspecified future month is a promise, not a plan. It might turn into real help for displaced workers. It also might not, or it might take years to find out. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, responded on X that he'd rather Anthropic just give the shares directly to the public, which tells you even people inside this industry don't agree on whether a fund like this actually reaches anyone.
In my marketing company, I work with contractors, roofers, pressure washers, lawn care guys, who don't have a corporate fund coming for them either way. The lesson from running my own companies is the same one I'd give anyone reading this: don't plan your income around somebody else's good intentions. Plan it around what you control.
What 'Direct Distributions' Could Mean, and What It Doesn't Yet
The phrase that jumps out in Anthropic's announcement is direct distributions for specific populations. That's the part that would actually put money in someone's pocket, as opposed to a donation to a nonprofit. But there's no list of who qualifies, no dollar figure, and no date. Anthropic has said it will share the structure and governance details in the coming months, not now.
If you're one of the 71 percent of adults the Pew survey found worried about AI costing jobs, this fund isn't something you can apply to today. At best it's a signal that one of the companies building the technology is acknowledging the damage. Whether it turns into income for actual displaced workers is still an open question.
What to Watch For
This is still a proposal, not a done deal. A few things will tell you whether it's real:
- Shareholder approval of the fund, which Anthropic says is required before it moves forward
- The baseline valuation figure, once disclosed, since that's what triggers the extra 2 percent increments
- The fund's structure and governance details, promised in the coming months
- Anthropic's public benefit report, where progress is supposed to show up
- Whether the reportedly November IPO actually happens on that timeline