Anthropic's founders want to keep control of the company even after it goes public.
The AI company is asking shareholders to approve a new voting structure that would hand its seven co-founders a combined 50.1% of the vote on most corporate matters. That's a bare majority, but a majority all the same. The move comes ahead of an anticipated initial public offering. A structure like this would let the founding team outvote everyone else in the room, including outside investors and, eventually, public shareholders.
Dual-class and founder-control structures are common in tech IPOs, including Google, Meta, and Snap. Anthropic's approach is unusual because it locks in control for seven people rather than a single founder-CEO. That's a bet that collective founder judgment beats market discipline, right as the company asks public investors to trust it with their money.
Public shareholders in these deals usually get the economic upside without much say in how the company is run, worth remembering before anyone gets excited about buying in.