Musk, Anthropic Pledge Public Share Giveaways — SkimNews
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- Elon Musk announced Monday he will give one SpaceX share to every American child next year, saying on social media, "This will be the first of many," with no further details on distribution disclosed
- Anthropic pledged to commit 5% of its shares to a Public Benefit Fund for donations to the "public good," with an additional 2% potentially added at its board's discretion
- Anthropic said the fund's shares will not be used for lobbying or political donations in the US or overseas, following Musk's call for shares to go "directly to the public"
- Anthropic is laying groundwork for a potential IPO that could value the firm at more than $1tn (£750bn), while SpaceX set the record for the biggest IPO in history in June, raising $85.7bn
- Anthropic told prospective investors its revenue surged 45% to $16.8bn (£12.6bn) in the three months to the end of September
- The pledges come amid scrutiny over AI safety: former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, 27, said after resigning that staff are "genuinely frightened" about the speed of progress
- Earlier this month, Donald Trump and heads of major AI firms — including Musk, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, and OpenAI's Sam Altman — signed a "morally binding" document committing to AI safety
Why it matters: The giveaways hand equity directly to the public while Anthropic prepares for an IPO that could exceed $1tn and SpaceX already set the biggest-ever IPO record in June with $85.7bn raised. Both Musk and Anthropic head Dario Amodei have publicly called for AI deceleration and regulation even as their firms scale rapidly toward trillion-dollar valuations.
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