From Carnegie to Claude: AI wealth could reshape philanthropy

Anthropic has said the fund's equity will not be used for lobbying or political giving and that it will report on its activities. (File pic)WASHINGTON: 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 goes.Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, has said it would commit 5% of its shares to a new Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, a stake that could be worth around US$100 billion if the company reaches the US$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% of their equity and a program 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 nonprofit that controls ChatGPT maker OpenAI, holds a 26% stake in the company that was valued at about US$130 billion when it 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, after the industrial fortunes of the late 19th century and the internet billionaires of recent decades.

'Dies disgraced' Carnegie argued in his 1889 essay "The Gospel of Wealth" that "the man who dies thus rich dies disgraced," and by his death had given away the bulk of his fortune, about US$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.Railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt gave comparatively little, apart from the US$1 million that founded the university bearing his name.Anthropic is setting up its fund as a limited liability company that it wholly owns, rather than as a nonprofit foundation, which 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 S… Anthropic has said it would commit 5% of its shares to a public benefit fund, a stake that could be worth $100 billion when the firm goes public.