Anthropic's $2T IPO puts its external trustees under the microscope

Anthropic's planned IPO — which could value the Claude maker at as much as $2 trillion — is forcing public-market investors to reckon with an unusual governance structure: a small external group that controls the majority of its board.

The Long-Term Benefit Trust (LTBT), created to safeguard Anthropic's mission of developing AI for humanity's long-term benefit, holds no equity but has the right to appoint or dismiss a majority of the company's seven directors. It has selected four, including Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan. The trust currently has three of a possible five members, chaired by Neil Buddy Shah, alongside former Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke and Richard Fontaine.

Trustees get advance notice of major actions, including new model launches, meet weekly among themselves, and confer with leadership as often as every other week. People close to the plans say Anthropic aims to make the LTBT an industry governance blueprint, akin to voluntary GAAP accounting standards — with Bernanke's July appointment signaling a push toward a more institutional body.

Public-market scrutiny will test whether this experiment in balancing profit and purpose survives commercial pressure.