In Brief
- Historic windfall: surging valuations at AI firms like Anthropic and OpenAI are creating a ‘third wave’ of American philanthropy, rivalling the fortunes of Carnegie and Rockefeller.
- Transparency concerns: Anthropic’s pledge could be worth $100 billion, but because its fund is structured as an LLC rather than a traditional non-profit, experts warn that transparency is voluntary and control remains with the company.
- Competing visions: While many AI founders favour ‘effective altruism’ or direct cash transfers for displaced workers, rival Elon Musk has criticised the approach, pledging instead to give SpaceX shares directly to American children.
By Alex Pigman
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – A wave of American wealth created by artificial intelligence companies could produce some of the largest charitable sums since the era of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, raising questions about where the money will go.
Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, has said it will commit five percent of its shares to a new Anthropic Public Benefit Fund—a stake that could be worth around $100 billion if the company reaches the $2 trillion valuation investors are eyeing for a stock market debut expected as early as November.
Combined with pledges by its seven co-founders to give away 80 percent of their equity and a programme matching employees’ donations, Anthropic says roughly a fifth of its shares will be dedicated to public-benefit purposes.
“This might be one of the biggest stories in corporate philanthropy ever,” said Michael Moody, a professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
The OpenAI Foundation, the non-profit that controls ChatGPT maker OpenAI, holds a 26 percent stake in the company. That stake was valued at about $130 billion when the firm was restructured a year ago—more than the endowment of the Gates Foundation.
Nan Ransohoff of payments firm Stripe has described the moment as a “third wave” of American philanthropy, following the industrial fortunes of the late 19th century and the internet billionaires of recent decades.
‘Dies disgraced’
In his 1889 essay, “The Gospel of Wealth,” Carnegie argued that “the man who dies thus rich dies disgraced,” and by his death had given away the bulk of his fortune, about $350 million.
Carnegie transferred what remained into a trust, which has continued to make grants for more than a century.
Rockefeller’s money built universities and funded medical research and public health campaigns around the world.
Railway magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt gave comparatively little, apart from the $1 million that founded the university bearing his name.
Today’s AI titans, however, are structuring their giving differently. Anthropic is setting up its fund as a wholly owned limited liability company rather than as a non-profit foundation, which by law must pay out a minimum share of its assets each year and file public tax returns.
“The trade-off is that decision-making stays with the company and transparency is voluntary,” said Sarah Wolfolds, who studies non-profit organisations at Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business.
Anthropic has said the fund’s equity will not be used for lobbying or political giving, and that it will report on its activities.
‘Where the money is’
Many Anthropic founders and staff have close ties to effective altruism, a movement that favours causes such as AI safety and global health because of their measurable impact.
“Non-profits tend to reorient their programmes toward where the money is,” Wolfolds said, warning that other causes can become neglected.
Moody said the philanthropic world would be “looking closely at which causes they support,” including whether research funding is limited to AI.
Laura McGarry, of fundraising consultancy Graham-Pelton, said the charities best placed to benefit are those that already have relationships with the newly wealthy.
“It’s really about values alignment,” she said, adding that charities that court the newly rich only after their big payday risk looking transactional.
Effective altruism has shaped some donors’ giving, she added, but has not “dramatically upset the apple cart.”
Anthropic has also said the fund could make payments directly to groups affected by AI’s impact on jobs, though it has not given details.
Research on cash transfers is encouraging, Wolfolds said, but “the harder challenge may be identifying who has been affected by AI.”
Such payments should complement, not replace, unemployment insurance and retraining programmes, she said.
One child, one share
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, whose SpaceX owns rival AI developer xAI, criticised Anthropic’s approach.
“I recommend giving the shares directly to the public,” he wrote on X.
As an alternative, Musk pledged one of his SpaceX shares to every American child next year, a gift worth about $10.5 billion.
US President Donald Trump praised the move as fitting the philosophy behind his “Trump Accounts,” government-backed investment accounts for children born between 2025 and 2028. Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell have also pledged billions to the programme.
