Can AI safety and profit growth coexist? Anthropic is betting on it

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In 2021, a group of employees at OpenAI left the company to start a new lab focused on safe development of artificial intelligence. Later this month, that lab, Anthropic, is expected to make its debut on Wall Street in what could be one of the largest initial public offerings in history.

The IPO is a monumental development for the AI boom and will put a spotlight on how investors feel about the maker of the Claude chatbot. The stock market debut also marks a new chapter for Anthropic that will test whether it can balance its mission of safely developing AI with the pressures of being a publicly traded company.

Anthropic has a unique ownership structure designed to help stick to its original goals and keep investors from staging a takeover. The structure includes a group of trustees who have majority control of the board of directors, as well as a special class of shares that ensures the seven founders own a majority of the general shareholder voting power.

With its mission for safe AI and its unorthodox corporate structure, Anthropic’s Wall Street debut can be viewed as a guinea pig for AI frontier labs and how they are received by investors.

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Anthropic is registered as a public benefit corporation, or PBC. These types of companies are legally required to balance the interests of shareholders with the company’s stated mission. It’s different than a traditional company that focuses primarily on maximizing shareholder value.

Anthropic described its “tripartite goals” as a PBC in its S-1 filing: “the pecuniary interest of our stockholders, the best interest of those materially affected by our conduct and the Company Purpose.”

Just a fraction of publicly traded companies are PBCs, noted Jay Ritter, professor emeritus at the University of Florida. Patagonia, which is privately held, and eyewear retailer Warby Parker ( WRBY ) are both PBCs.

PBCs can choose what they want to do with corporate profits and invest as much as they want in safety measures. And investors cannot do anything about it, Ritted noted. Anthropic rival OpenAI became a PBC in 2025.

Anthropic’s seven founders collectively have 50.1% of the voting rights at the company, which means regular shareholders won’t have any say in its operations. This is a variation of a trend in Big Tech companies in recent years that have had structures where the founders retain majority control, like Mark Zuckerberg at Meta and Elon Musk at SpaceX.

Anthropic set to make stock market debut as questions swirl about safety of AI

It’s not just that the founders have majority control. Anthropic in 2023 established the Long-Term Benefit Trust (LTBT), which is composed of five subject-matter experts who have no financial stake in the company’s stock. However, they have special non-financial shares with the authority to appoint four directors to the seven-person company board.

The LTBT members include Neil Buddy Shah, CEO at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and Ben Bernanke, the former chair of the Federal Reserve. There is one vacancy in the LTBT that has yet to be filled.

“The LTBT may have interests that differ from yours, and it may exercise its power in a way with which you disagree or in a way that may be adverse to your interests,” Anthropic says in a filing with the SEC, referring to shareholders.

Anthropic and CEO Dario Amodei have talked about the risk of AI causing tremendous harm to humanity if placed in the wrong hands. Anthropic’s IPO filing includes more than 90 pages of risk disclosures , varying from how AI can be misused by bad actors to the possibility of existential risk to humanity.

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When a company goes public, there can be more pressure to grow profits and deliver strong results for shareholders — something financial analysts have been quick to note.

“Anthropic is explicit about that, that they believe that there will be instances where they choose not to maximize shareholder value because of the judgments that they make, the board and the leadership team,” said Gil Luria, head of technology research at financial services firm D.A. Davidson.

Anthropic’s ownership structure won’t matter as much if profits are strong and it follows its mission of developing safe AI. But it will be stress-tested if earnings aren’t as strong as expected or disagreements arise between the board, founders or trustees, Luria said.

If there are growing concerns, the founders and LTBT can make decisions for the company that impact the value of shares without any consideration for investors. In theory, it can help the company stick to its mission — but it remains to be seen how the structure will function until an event forces the company to act.

“The strangest aspect of Anthropic’s filing is its corporate governance structure,” Jay Goldberg, senior analyst at Seaport Research Partners, wrote in a note. “We believe this is the largest PBC and the full implications of this structure will take time to become apparent.”

“We believe this structure gives the LTBT and the founders effective permanent control of the company,” Goldberg added.

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2021年，OpenAI的一批员工离开公司，创立了一家专注于人工智能安全开发的新实验室。本月晚些时候，这家名为Anthropic的实验室预计将在华尔街上市，其IPO规模有望成为史上最大IPO之一。

此次IPO对于人工智能行业的蓬勃发展而言意义重大，也将使投资者对Claude聊天机器人开发商的看法成为关注焦点。此次股市上市也标志着Anthropic公司开启了新的篇章，它将面临考验，看该公司能否在安全开发人工智能的使命与上市公司所面临的压力之间取得平衡。

Anthropic 采用独特的股权结构，旨在帮助公司坚持其最初的目标，并防止投资者进行收购。该结构包括一个由受托人组成的董事会，他们拥有董事会的多数控制权；此外，还设有一种特殊类别的股份，确保七位创始人拥有普通股东的多数投票权。

Anthropic 的使命是实现安全的人工智能，其公司结构也非同寻常。该公司在华尔街的首次亮相可以被视为人工智能前沿实验室及其投资者接受程度的试验品。

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Anthropic是一家注册的公益公司（PBC）。这类公司依法必须平衡股东利益与公司既定使命。这与主要以股东价值最大化为目标的传统公司有所不同。

Anthropic 在其 S-1 文件中将其“三重目标”描述为一家公共业务公司 (PBC)：“股东的经济利益、受我们行为重大影响的人的最佳利益以及公司宗旨”。

佛罗里达大学荣誉教授杰伊·里特指出，只有一小部分上市公司是PBC（公共业务公司）。私营企业Patagonia和眼镜零售商Warby Parker（WRBY）都是PBC。

公益公司可以自主决定如何使用企业利润，并根据自身意愿在安全措施上投入资金。里特德指出，投资者对此无能为力。人因科技的竞争对手OpenAI于2025年转型为公益公司。

Anthropic 的七位创始人共持有公司 50.1% 的投票权，这意味着普通股东对公司的运营没有任何发言权。近年来，大型科技公司普遍采用创始人保留多数控制权的架构，例如 Meta 的马克·扎克伯格和 SpaceX 的埃隆·马斯克，这与此趋势类似。

人工智能安全性引发诸多质疑之际，Anthropic公司即将上市。

不仅仅是创始人拥有多数控制权。Anthropic 于 2023 年设立了长期利益信托基金 (LTBT)，该基金由五位领域专家组成，他们不持有公司任何股份。然而，他们拥有特殊的非金融股份，并有权向七人组成的公司董事会任命四名董事。

长期贸易和贸易委员会（LTBT）成员包括克林顿健康倡议组织首席执行官尼尔·巴迪·沙阿和美联储前主席本·伯南克。LTBT目前还有一个空缺职位尚未填补。

Anthropic 在提交给美国证券交易委员会的文件中表示：“LTBT 的利益可能与你们的利益不同，它行使权力的方式可能与你们的利益相悖，或者可能损害你们的利益。”这里指的是股东。

Anthropic公司及其首席执行官达里奥·阿莫迪曾谈到，如果人工智能落入不法分子之手，可能会对人类造成巨大危害。Anthropic的IPO文件中包含了超过90页的风险披露，内容涵盖了人工智能可能被不法分子滥用，以及对人类生存构成威胁等诸多方面。

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公司上市后，可能会面临更大的盈利增长压力，并为股东带来强劲的业绩——金融分析师们很快就注意到了这一点。

“Anthropic对此非常明确，他们认为，由于董事会和领导团队的判断，有时会选择不最大化股东价值，”金融服务公司DA Davidson的技术研究主管吉尔·卢里亚表示。

卢里亚表示，如果盈利强劲且公司始终秉持开发安全人工智能的使命，那么Anthropic的股权结构就不那么重要了。但如果盈利不如预期，或者董事会、创始人或受托人之间出现分歧，那么股权结构将面临严峻考验。

如果担忧情绪日益加剧，创始人及长期信托基金（LTBT）可以做出影响公司股价的决策，而无需考虑投资者的利益。理论上，这有助于公司坚持其使命——但这种架构在特定事件迫使公司采取行动之前究竟如何运作，仍有待观察。

Seaport Research Partners高级分析师杰伊·戈德堡在一份报告中写道：“Anthropic提交的文件中最奇怪的一点是其公司治理结构。我们认为这是规模最大的PBC（上市公司），而这种结构的全部影响还需要时间才能显现。”

戈德堡补充道：“我们认为这种结构使LTBT和创始人能够有效地永久控制公司。”