Claude developer Anthropic has announced it is committing 5 per cent of its shares to a “public benefit fund” amid growing backlash over artificial intelligence.
And Tesla boss Elon Musk has promised to give a share in his SpaceX company to “every kid in America” next year.
AI start-up Anthropic said in a blog post the fund would be a wholly owned liability company and that it would receive an additional 2 per cent of Anthropic shares at the board's discretion for every 50 per cent increase in the company's value above a to-be-announced baseline.
It said establishing the fund, which would be subject to shareholder approval, will give it more flexibility and scale to make donations “to traditional non-profit or direct distributions to specific populations”.
“Because of the way the fund is structured, the more Anthropic grows, the larger the share of the company that can be dedicated expressly to the public good,” it said on Sunday.
The company is planning one of the biggest IPOs in history as a public benefit corporation, possibly as soon as November. The company said in June it had submitted a confidential filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for its proposed IPO. Abu Dhabi technology investment firm MGX took part in Anthropic's recent $65 billion funding round.
Anthropic gave the labour market as one area of focus for the fund, with a $200 million commitment to study the issue. Research from the International Monetary Fund estimates about 60 per cent of jobs in advanced economies are exposed to AI. Separate research from Goldman Sachs said recent anecdotes and data suggest AI displacement in the US could be strong among entry-level workers.
Mr Musk responded to Anthropic's announcement on X saying, “I recommend giving the shares directly to the public."
He pledged one share of SpaceX to “every kid in America” next year in a separate post on Monday, without providing further details.
“This will be the first of many,” Mr Musk wrote.
The world's first trillionaire could theoretically use the recently created Trump Accounts programme to donate the shares. The programme allows donors to make contributions without paying a capital gains tax, in some circumstances. The Treasury Department said in a September notice that it was seeking to automatically enrol up to 60 million children in the programme.
With about 73 million people under 18 years of age in the US, the pledge would be valued at about $10.7 billion at the company's Friday close at $146.03 a share. SpaceX was trading 0.78 per cent higher at $147.33 a share as of 2:30pm ET (8pm GST) on Monday.
The pledges from Anthropic and Mr Musk come as Americans grow more concerned about AI. A recent AP-Norc poll found 64 per cent of US adults believe the technology is developing “too fast”, compared to 27 per cent saying development has been “about right” and 8 per cent saying it is moving “too slow”.
Building the massive data centres housing the technology is also leading to rising energy costs. A recent poll from Quinnipiac University said about 73 per cent of US voters oppose the building of data centres in their communities.
AI executives and President Donald Trump have recently adopted a defensive stance amid this growing backlash, with the US leader calling AI anxieties a "hoax".
In September, he hosted chief executives from Nvidia, Meta and other Big Tech firms at the White House, where they signed what was billed as a morally binding agreement to help police AI.
The document encourages companies to "implement robust internal controls" to monitor models during training, empower an internal team to ensure controls are operating as intended, link up with an independent external auditor, and designate an independent committee to oversee and receive reports from the team operating the controls.
Mr Trump has also opposed AI regulations, saying such orders would put the US at a disadvantage against China in the AI race.
