Anthropic will create a public benefit fund and transfer 5% of its own shares to it. The company plans to use it to finance projects that benefit society, including support for specific population groups and nonprofit organizations. As Anthropic’s valuation grows, the fund’s stake may also increase.

The fund will be set up as a structure wholly owned by Anthropic. The company has also provided for the possibility of transferring additional shares to it: another 2% for every 50% increase in the company’s valuation, TechCrunch reports.

What the money will be spent on

Anthropic has not yet presented a final list of funding areas. Among the options under consideration are large donations to traditional nonprofit organizations and direct payments to certain population groups.

A separate issue is the impact of artificial intelligence on the labor market. Earlier, the company had already allocated $200 million to research into the economic consequences of AI development. The new fund, according to Anthropic’s plan, will make it possible to support larger-scale initiatives if the pace of technological change requires unconventional solutions.

“Given the speed of AI development, bolder approaches may be needed,” the company said, emphasizing that the fund must have sufficient flexibility to implement such projects.

Against a backdrop of growing distrust of AI

The initiative comes at a time when public attitudes toward the artificial intelligence industry are becoming increasingly cautious. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei previously described the negative reaction to AI primarily as a crisis of trust.

Creating the fund could become one way to direct part of the economic gains from the company’s growth toward public needs. However, it is still unclear who exactly will decide which initiatives deserve funding and how their benefits will be assessed.

Anthropic promises to disclose additional details about the fund’s structure and governance principles in the coming months. Until those details are published, it is not yet possible to assess exactly how the mechanism for distributing funds will work.