Anthropic founders to pocket 24 trillion won in IPO while retaining control

[Financial News]  

The founders of artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic are expected to sell about $18 billion worth of shares (about 24 trillion won) in the IPO process while retaining control of the company.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 10th (local time) that Anthropic’s seven co-founders would each sell about $250 million worth of shares while retaining their voting rights.
Anthropic said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it plans to sell 825 million shares at $70 to $78 per share. The company would be valued at between $1.26 trillion and $1.41 trillion. According to PitchBook, Anthropic was valued at about $965 billion during a fundraising round in May.
According to WSJ, siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, along with the other five co-founders, will each sell about $250 million worth of their shares while retaining their voting rights in full.
Anthropic plans to raise around $80 billion or more by listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market next week at a valuation of about $1.3 trillion. Alongside the public offering, it plans to sell shares to large investors such as Alphabet.
The seven co-founders each hold 3.6% to 3.7% of Anthropic’s voting rights. According to the filing, each plans to sell nearly 3.4 million shares at $70 to $78 per share in the IPO.
The seven founders hold all of Anthropic’s key leadership positions.
Dario Amodei is Anthropic’s CEO, and his younger sister Daniela Amodei is president and chair of the board. Tom Brown is chief compute officer (CCO), Jared Kaplan is chief science officer (CSO), and Sam McCandlish is head of design. Jack Clark heads the Anthropic Institute, an in-house think tank focused on AI safety, while Christopher Olah leads interpretability research.
Even after selling Anthropic shares, the seven will each continue to hold a 3.2% stake in the company based on their Class A shares. At the midpoint of the offering price range, each stake would be worth about $18 billion. This means that despite the large share sale, the seven founders will continue to own about 22% of the company in total.
Thanks to an unusual and complex capital structure, they can retain a majority of the voting rights, at 50.1%, despite holding a 22% stake.
This means that the founders will have the final say on key company decisions, whatever other shareholders decide.

[email protected] Song Kyung-jae Reporter