Anthropic Co-Founders to Reap $250 Million Each from Upcoming IPO

All seven co-founders of artificial intelligence company Anthropic are set to sell approximately $250 million worth of shares each in the company's upcoming initial public offering (IPO), according to an updated S-1 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Each founder plans to sell 3,378,378 shares. Anthropic has set a price range of $70 to $78 per share, implying a valuation of about $1.4 trillion. At the midpoint price of $74, each founder would collect just under $250 million. At $70, the payout would be just over $236 million, while at $78 it would rise to just under $264 million. Together, the seven would raise roughly $1.75 billion.

The final amount could be higher, as hot IPOs often price above their initial range, and the filing already indicates strong demand. Board member Reed Hastings intends to buy $300 million worth of shares through his donor-advised fund, while board member Christopher Liddell plans to purchase $3 million.

The seven co-founders are Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, Tom Brown, Jack Clark, Jared Kaplan, Sam McCandlish and Christopher Olah. They left OpenAI in 2021 to start Anthropic over disagreements on how AI should be built.

After the sale, each founder will own about 3.2% of Anthropic's Class A shares, or roughly 22% collectively. Their stake in the overall company is smaller, as investors such as Amazon and Google hold non-voting Class N shares. However, each founder will also receive one Class F share with super-voting rights. Collectively, the founders will control 51.1% of the votes, keeping the company firmly in their hands.

The update follows an earlier mix-up when Anthropic briefly circulated IPO pricing details and then withdrew them. The company first filed for its IPO in October.