Anthropic's leadership team is making moves to retain control once the company transitions to public ownership. The company has reportedly asked its shareholders to greenlight a governance structure within the next few days, one that would grant CEO Dario Amodei and his six fellow co-founders special voting shares. Together, these shares would carry 50.1% of the vote on most corporate decisions—provided at least three of the founders maintain a minimum ownership stake.

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This kind of arrangement isn't unheard of. Super-voting shares are precisely how Mark Zuckerberg held onto power at Meta, and how Evan Spiegel kept his grip on Snap. The list of founders who've used this tactic is lengthy. What sets Anthropic's situation apart, though, is that it's a group effort rather than a solo play.

So why go this route? Each of the seven co-founders, Amodei included, reportedly holds just 2% of the company. They've also committed to donating 80% of their personal wealth—a pledge the CEO made public in January, paired with a caution that AI-fueled wealth concentration could threaten societal stability. While these new shares wouldn't come with additional economic upside, they would lock in the founders' collective control once Anthropic begins trading on public markets.

There are additional quirks built into the plan. Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust would retain the authority to select the majority of the board. The founders' representation on the board would expand from two seats to three. And employees would receive their own class of stock designed to cast tie-breaking votes on certain matters.

Anthropic, now five years old, carried a valuation of $965 billion as of May. More recently, it was valued at $1.5 trillion on the secondary market, and its forthcoming IPO is anticipated to mirror that updated figure.