All Seven Anthropic Founders Set to Cash Out Roughly $250M Each in Blockbuster IPO
As Anthropic races toward a massive IPO that could value the company at $1.4 trillion, a detail in its newly filed S-1 reveals how many shares each of its seven co-founders plans to sell.
A Uniform Exit Plan
Each founder intends to sell 3,378,378 shares. Anthropic has set an unusually broad initial price range of $70 to $78 per share. At the midpoint of $74, each founder would take in just under $250 million.
At the low end of $70, each would pocket just over $236 million in cash. At the high end of $78, each would walk away with just under $264 million.
Given the intense anticipation surrounding this IPO, the company could well price shares above its initial range.
Signs of Strong Demand
The S-1 already hints at robust interest. Board member Reed Hastings has indicated he wants to purchase $300 million worth of shares through his donor-advised fund. Fellow board member Christopher Liddell also intends to buy $3 million worth of shares.
The Seven Co-Founders
The co-founders are:
- Dario Amodei, CEO
- Daniela Amodei, President and Chair of the Board
- Tom Brown, Chief Compute Officer
- Jack Clark, Head of Public Benefit
- Jared Kaplan, Chief Science Officer
- Sam McCandlish, Chief Architect
- Christopher Olah, Interpretability Research Lead
Ownership and Control After the Sale
Following the share sale, each founder will own approximately 3.2% of total outstanding Class A shares, or roughly 22% collectively, according to the S-1. That figure does not represent their overall stake in the company. Class A is only one of Anthropic's share classes, and other holders—including Amazon and Google—hold non-voting Class N shares, meaning the founders' share of total equity will be considerably smaller.
Even so, as a group they will retain control of the company. Each founder will also receive one share of Class F stock, which carries supervoting rights. Collectively, the founders will control 51.1% of votes, though no single founder will hold significantly more shares or votes than the others.
From OpenAI to Anthropic
As is now industry lore, the seven founders left OpenAI to launch Anthropic in 2021 after disagreements with OpenAI's leadership over how AI should be built. Siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who held senior research and policy roles at OpenAI, were joined by five fellow OpenAI colleagues in forming a company that has stated—publicly and from the outset—that it places a stronger emphasis on AI safety than its rivals, including their former employer.
via TechCrunch AI