Anthropic, the AI startup that plans to go public soon, lets workers donate company shares to charities. The firm then adds more shares on top of the donation, and early staff get three times the value of what they gave. Between October 2025 and March 2026 this scheme cost Anthropic more than $660 million, a figure that dilutes the ownership of other investors.
How the donations compare
In 2025 alone, Anthropic’s employee donations totalled $540 million. That is almost five times what Truist Financial gave ($115 million) and BlackRock gave ($109 million), the next‑largest corporate donors among Fortune 500 companies. The company’s IPO filing says the CEO and the six co‑founders have promised to give away at least 80 percent of their wealth, and many staff follow “Effective Altruism” ideas, aiming the money at global poverty, AI safety and animal welfare.
Why it matters
For ordinary investors, the huge share giveaways mean their ownership will be diluted when Anthropic lists. For charity fans, the program shows a new way tech firms can channel wealth to causes, though the exact impact depends on the stock’s future price.
