Elon Musk says share it directly after Anthropic pledges 5% stake to public benefit fund

Anthropic wants to give away a slice of itself. Elon Musk has notes on how. On October 18, 2026, the AI company behind the Claude models announced plans to allocate 5% of its shares to a newly created Anthropic Public Benefit Fund. The move still needs stockholder approval. The same day, Musk took to social media to suggest that the shares should go straight to the public instead of sitting inside an intermediary fund. How the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund works Anthropic set it up as a wholly owned LLC rather than a nonprofit, a choice aimed at preserving operational flexibility. The 5% is only the starting point. At the board’s discretion, the fund could receive an additional 2% of equity for every 50% increase in Anthropic’s valuation above a baseline that has yet to be determined. Over time, this structure could lead to a commitment of up to 20% of shares for public-benefit uses. That figure is framed as working alongside earlier equity pledges from the company’s co-founders and employees, so it should be read as a potential ceiling, not a guaranteed allocation. The fund is explicitly barred from using its equity for political contributions or lobbying. Musk’s counterproposal M...