Anthropic’s IPO set to test external trust with power over board
Reported: Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust (LTBT) holds no equity but can appoint or dismiss a majority of the board and has already selected four of seven directors. Current trustees (three of a possible five): Neil Buddy Shah, Ben Bernanke and Richard Fontaine. Trustees get advance notice of major actions including new model launches, meet weekly among themselves and meet leadership as often as every other week. A person close to talks said trustees encouraged a limited rollout of Anthropic’s Mythos cybersecurity model via the Glasswing Project. The trust can be removed with support from 85% of shareholders’ voting power, per a person familiar with the structure. The company “may be valued at as much as $2tn” in a planned IPO. The piece contrasts this with OpenAI’s November 2023 attempt to fire Sam Altman, which lost investor/employee confidence and led to board replacement. Interpretation (Murgia): trustee control is still an unproven balance between public-benefit mission and commercial IPO pressure.
Why it matters
Governance is the IPO product as much as the model. For Dealroom this is how to score Anthropic (and peer “public benefit” AI labs) ahead of listing: who actually controls the board, what can block a commercial launch, and how hard 85% voting power makes trust removal. Complements The Information’s Dealmaker metrics coverage with the FT’s structural/board angle.
