According to a document with the identifier SEC, Anthropic's Chief Executive Officer, Dario Amodei, has pledged to use a portion of his company shares for charitable purposes, but under unusual conditions.
Anthropic disclosed in a securities document this week more details about the shareholding scale of Amodei and the substantial profits that the company's other six founders may earn after IPO next month. According to the document, Amodei and the other founders each hold more than 200 million shares; if Anthropic reaches an expected valuation of over $1 trillion, these shares could be worth billions of dollars.
A large portion of it will be directed towards charitable causes. Anthropic states in the document that the co-founders of the company have each committed to using 80% of their personal equity held in Anthropic for charitable purposes. This move follows a public letter issued by Amodei in January this year, in which he warned that the wealthy have a responsibility to support workers and families who will be left behind by artificial intelligence.
What bothers me is that the wealthy (especially in the tech industry) have recently adopted a cynical and nihilistic attitude, believing that charity is ultimately either fraudulent or useless, he wrote.
In addition to donations from the founders, Anthropic also stated that the company will match the shares of its employees donated to charitable organizations, amounting to several billion dollars.
In terms of individual donations, Amodei has chosen a tool favored by the new generation of tech billionaires: the Donor Advised Fund ( donor-advised funds, abbreviated as DAF ). DAF allows donors to contribute cash, stocks, or other assets into private charitable investment accounts managed by public charities. Donors can immediately receive tax deductions, while charities can disburse the funds in installments over time, giving donors greater flexibility and more time to allocate their funds. Tech founders also prefer DAF because they can donate shares of private companies that have appreciated significantly, avoiding capital gains taxes when selling those shares.
The document shows that in addition to the 240.6 million shares he directly holds, Amodei also disclosed an additional 4.6 million shares that are "bound by voting proxies." Anthropic explains in a footnote that Amodei has the right to vote on the shares currently held by the donor-suggested fund or "subsequently acquired."
The two donors listed in the document are suggested to be Daffy Charitable Fund and Dechomai Asset Trust. In the document, Anthropic indicates that the company has signed a 'major donor' agreement with these DAF, with DAF receiving share donations from the company or its employees. In an article from January this year, Amodei mentioned that Anthropic employees have pledged to donate company shares worth billions of dollars, and Anthropic 'pledged to match' that contribution.
Daffy's CEO and co-founder, Adam Nash, stated that a new wave of artificial intelligence-driven wealth is expected to usher in an era of more committed philanthropy.
He has served as the CEO of Wealthfront and is also an angel investor. Nash said, "We see massive wealth being created. Whenever there is a wave of wealth creation in this country, a portion of that wealth and assets is always set aside for charity. I see many people in their twenties and thirties wondering, 'What is the purpose of this wealth?' 'What is the impact of what we create?'"
Nash indicates that he cannot comment on any specific companies or individuals that cooperate with Daffy, including Amodei and Anthropic. However, he stated that the original intention of establishing Daffy was to make individual donations easier and to help companies institutionalize such donations.
Daffy promotes itself as a "donation version of 401(k)", and is currently collaborating with several artificial intelligence giants, including OpenAI, to allow users to donate private stocks or restricted stocks that many charitable organizations are unwilling to accept. Five years after its establishment, Daffy's charitable assets have exceeded $2 billion.
Amodei is allowed to retain voting rights over the shares donated to DAF, with certain restrictions and conditions attached. This arrangement is likely to trigger controversy in the non-profit sector. According to the rules governing charitable donations, donors are only entitled to tax deductions for charitable donations if they relinquish control of the shares. Some DAF managers argue that retaining voting rights over these shares may be seen as retaining a form of control.
Nash indicates that it is quite common for donors to impose additional restrictions on charitable donations in the form of shares, including conditions regarding the timing of sale, voting rights, or other aspects. Two fundamental principles require that such donations must be irrevocable, and non-profit organizations are permitted to retain ultimate control over the investments within these restrictions.
He said that removing barriers to donation, such as issues related to voting rights, would lead to more charitable donations.
“Daffy is based on a simple concept – if we can just make it easier for people to set aside funds for charity, or even make early commitments, we could increase charitable donations by trillions of dollars,” he said. “I can’t tell you how excited I am to see this emerging among these new companies; we’re starting to see founders and companies truly adopting the same logic.”
