Anthropic is preparing to give CEO Dario Amodei and other co-founders shares carrying extra voting power ahead of a possible initial public offering, The Information reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.
The plan could let the founders retain influence over the artificial-intelligence company even though their ownership has been heavily diluted. Amodei reportedly owns about 2% of Anthropic. Extra votes would give him power beyond what an ordinary 2% shareholder would receive.
Anthropic has not confirmed that it has adopted the plan, and its terms could still change. It is not known how many extra votes each founder share would carry, who would receive the shares, how long the special rights would last or which corporate decisions they would cover.
The practical consequence for prospective investors is straightforward: People buying Anthropic’s public shares could gain a financial stake without gaining a proportionate voice in how the company is run.
An IPO is being prepared, not promised
Anthropic said it confidentially submitted a draft registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 1. That begins a private review process; it does not commit the company to completing an IPO.
Anthropic has not settled the timing, number of shares or offering price. The eventual public filing, if the company proceeds, should provide the first detailed account of the proposed voting structure.
Shares with unequal voting rights are common among technology companies going public. They are often used to protect founders from pressure by outside investors or a hostile takeover. In Wilson Sonsini’s sample of 2025 technology IPOs, 68% had multiple share classes. Most sampled companies with such structures also included an expiration mechanism.
What makes Anthropic distinctive is that founder voting power would sit alongside an existing system designed to protect the company’s stated public-benefit mission.
A trust already controls most board seats
Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust holds a special class of stock that can elect and remove directors. The company said in April that directors appointed through the Trust had become a majority of its seven-person board.
The Trust was created to help Anthropic prioritize the long-term effects of advanced AI rather than respond only to investors seeking financial returns. Its trustees are independent of the company and hold no financial stake in Anthropic, according to the company’s description of the arrangement.
That leaves three potential centers of power after an IPO: public shareholders providing capital, founders holding enhanced votes and the Trust controlling most board appointments.
Exactly how those powers would fit together remains unclear. The founder shares might govern ordinary shareholder votes while the Trust retains special authority over directors, or one layer could constrain the other in particular circumstances. Anthropic’s public registration statement and governing documents will be needed to determine who can ultimately decide matters such as board composition, major transactions and changes to the company’s mission.
Until those documents appear, the reported plan is best understood as an effort to preserve founder influence, not proof that Amodei or any single group will control Anthropic after it goes public.