The figures in the S-1 document
In view of a listing that, according to the filed document, could value Anthropic at up to $1.4 trillion, the company disclosed in the new S-1 how many shares each of the seven co-founders intends to sell. According to TechCrunch, each would sell 3,378,378 shares, an identical amount for all.
Anthropic has indicated an unusually wide initial price range, between $70 and $78 per share. At the midpoint of $74, each founder would receive just under $250 million. At the two extremes, proceeds would range from just over $236 million at $70 to just under $264 million at $78. The source also notes that, in a highly anticipated offering like this, the final price may be set even above the initial range.
Control remains with the founders
The relevant figure is not only the amount of proceeds but the effect on governance. After the sale, each co-founder will own about 3.2% of Class A ordinary shares, for a group total of around 22%. This stake does not correspond to the participation in the entire company: Class A is only one of the share classes, while other shareholders, including Amazon and Google, hold Class N non-voting shares, as reported by the source.
The founders' overall weight in total capital would therefore be considerably lower. Nevertheless, according to the S-1, the group would retain control: each founder would receive one Class F share with multiple voting rights, and together they will control 51.1% of the votes. None of them, the source specifies, will hold a share of stock or votes significantly higher than the others, which establishes an internal balance within the group.
The S-1 would already provide signals of strong demand. Director Reed Hastings would have indicated an intention to buy $300 million worth of shares through his donor-advised fund, while director Christopher Liddell would target $3 million worth of shares. These are stated intentions, not completed purchases, and the final price of the transaction remains to be determined.
Who the co-founders are and what remains to be verified
The seven co-founders named are CEO Dario Amodei; 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; and Christopher Olah, head of interpretability research. According to the source's account, the group left OpenAI in 2021 after disagreements with management over how to develop artificial intelligence, founding a company that from the outset publicly stated it would focus on AI safety more than competitors, including its former employer.
Several elements remain to be verified. The actual IPO price and final valuation are not known and could differ from the indicated range; the amounts received by the founders depend on that price. The total value of the founders' stake in the company's total capital is also not quantified, because the source does not provide data on the other share classes. The directors' purchase intentions are reported statements and not completed purchases. The listing date is not indicated in the material.
