Anthropic is asking shareholders to approve a new corporate structure that would grant its seven co-founders combined voting power on most matters, even though each owns just 2 percent of the company economically.
The mechanism relies on special shares carrying no economic value but designed to preserve founder control after the AI startup goes public. The voting power is contingent on at least three co-founders maintaining a minimum stake.
CEO Dario Amodei and six co-founders would collectively hold 50.1 percent of voting rights under the proposal. The structure mirrors arrangements at Meta and Snap, where Mark Zuckerberg and Evan Spiegel maintain control despite owning smaller economic stakes. What distinguishes Anthropic's approach is the distributed nature of the control block—voting power vests in seven founders rather than one.
The board composition would also shift. The Anthropic Long-Term Benefit Trust would retain power to appoint most board members. Co-founder seats would increase from two to three. Employees would receive shares designed to break ties on specific issues.
The push for founder control comes as Anthropic prepares for an IPO expected to value the company at $1.5 trillion based on recent secondary market trades. That valuation is nearly 60 percent above the company's $965 billion valuation in May.
In January, Amodei pledged to give away 80 percent of his wealth and warned that AI-driven wealth concentration could destabilize society. The voting control structure allows him and his co-founders to maintain strategic direction of the company while distributing their personal economic gains.
