Anthropic’s dual-class share structure borrows ideas from Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk—and the New York Times
Source: Fortune ·
The AI lab’s IPO filing creates five classes of common stock. Only one is for sale.
From the source
Anthropic’s S-1 IPO filing is officially out, and aside from warnings about “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity,” it includes an alphabet soup of varying classes of stock. Anthropic’s stock will come in five letters: A, E, F, N and T, two of which consist of a single share each and three carrying no economic rights. The public gets to buy one: Class A shares. Most controversies over dual-class shares have involved a Class B, but the Anthropic IPO is taking this subject into new letters…especially Class F, a single share of stock that allows each co-founder keep a say over the controlling vote even if they give away 98% of their shares. The IPO will create one share of Class F stock, held by an LLC owned by the seven co-founders. That one share carries 50.1% of the vote and no economic rights. Each co-founder has pledged to give away 80% of their Anthropic equity. Public shareholders split the remaining 49.9% among themselves, however many shares they own. Class A holders…