Who Owns Anthropic? Breaking Down the AI Startup’s Ownership and Investors [2023]

Anthropic has quickly risen to prominence as one of the most promising and well-funded AI startups working on advanced artificial intelligence. With Anthropic’s AI assistant Claude set to compete against tools like Google’s Bard, interest is growing around who founded, owns, and invests in this emerging leader in conversational AI.

Anthropic’s Founders

Like many tech startups in their early stages, Anthropic is currently majority owned and run by its founders.

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by married couple Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei. The two AI researchers met while working at OpenAI, the influential San Francisco AI safety lab co-chaired by Elon Musk.

Dario Amodei previously led research at OpenAI, while Daniela Amodei conducted AI safety coordination at the nonprofit lab. They wedded their shared passion for creating beneficial AI into the founding of Anthropic.

As founders and likely majority shareholders, Dario and Daniela Amodei control the board and make key decisions about things like future funding rounds and potentially going public. Anthropic’s origin story as a mission-driven husband-wife startup makes it a bit unique in the AI space.

Top Anthropic Investors

While the Amodeis maintain significant ownership control, Anthropic has also raised huge amounts of capital from outside private investors.

Here are some of the major venture capital firms, hedge funds, and other backers that have invested in Anthropic to date:

• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) – The prestigious VC firm’s crypto investments arm a16z Crypto led by Chris Dixon was an early Anthropic backer.
• Tiger Global – The tech-focused hedge fund has poured capital into Anthropic. Tiger Global is an early investor in many top startups.
• Baseline Ventures – This VC firm headed by GitHub CEO Nat Friedman gave Anthropic one of its first checks.
• Breyer Capital – Jim Breyer’s fund, an early Facebook investor, also provided seed funding to Anthropic.
• Crosslink Capital – This longtime cybersecurity investor put money into Anthropic early on.
• Regiment Capital – The cryptocurrency investment firm contributed to Anthropic’s recent $300 million round.
• Several unnamed investors – Anthropic has raised from a number of not yet public funds and backers.

This elite group of venture firms, hedge funds, crypto investors, and wealthy individuals has funneled over $700 million total into Anthropic to date.

They are likely the key outside shareholders and stakeholders in the company besides the founders. But their exact ownership percentages are unclear given Anthropic’s private status.

Anthropic Employees

In addition to financial investors, Anthropic’s employees also maintain ownership in the startup via equity compensation packages.

Anthropic now employs over 100 people working on research, engineering, and business functions. Standout senior team members include:

• Daniela Amodei – Co-Founder & Research Director
• Dario Amodei – Co-Founder & CEO
• Tom Brown – CTO (former OpenAI and Google engineer)
• Sam McCandlish – Head of Ethics Research
• Sheer El-Showk – Head of Finance

Early engineers and researchers likely received sizable equity grants that give them meaningful stakes in Anthropic. Top talent retention is a key priority for any startup.

While Anthropic’s team owns minority stakes compared to founders and major investors, key employees could still see significant wealth if the company continues to grow and thrive.

The Path to Potential Public Ownership

Currently Anthropic employees and private investors are the only ones able to own a piece of this red-hot AI startup.

But that could eventually change in the future if Anthropic decides to make its shares publicly tradable through an initial public offering (IPO). Many top venture-backed startups take this route once scaling up.

However, the Amodeis appear fully focused on product development rather than prematurely rushing to public markets. An Anthropic IPO likely wouldn’t happen for a number of years at the earliest.

The earliest investors and employees will benefit the most from remaining private as long as possible, since their stakes stand to increase substantially in value before any public listing.

But if/when Anthropic does finally hit public markets, everyday investors would get the chance to buy shares and benefit from the company’s rise. Anthropic’s IPO would be hotly anticipated given the excitement around its AI technology.

For now, Anthropic ownership rests mainly with founders Dario and Daniela Amodei, the elite venture capital firms betting big on their vision, and the startup’s engineering team. But an Anthropic IPO could eventually open the doors to public ownership in one of the most promising companies shaping the future of artificial intelligence.

FAQs

Q: What percentage of Anthropic do the founders own?

A: The exact percentages are undisclosed, but Dario and Daniela Amodei likely own over 50% of Anthropic as founding shareholders.

Q: Is Anthropic owned by any larger companies?

A: No, Anthropic remains independently owned by its founders, employees, and private investors.

Q: Who sits on Anthropic’s board of directors?

A: The board likely includes founders Dario & Daniela Amodei plus representatives from lead investors like a16z Crypto and Tiger Global.

Q: Does Anthropic give equity to employees?

A: Yes, Anthropic offers equity compensation like stock options to employees, especially engineers and researchers.

Q: How many investors has Anthropic raised money from?

A: Anthropic has raised from over 10 known venture capital, crypto, and hedge fund investors so far.

Q: What share of Anthropic do top investors own?

A: The exact stakes are undisclosed, but likely 10-30% given the $700+ million raised so far.

Q: Does Anthropic have any outside advisors?

A: Yes, Anthropic has a Safety Advisory Council with AI experts like Stuart Russell and Yoshua Bengio.

Q: Does Anthropic have a parent company?

A: No, Anthropic remains an independent private company without any parent organization.

Q: Who oversees ethics at Anthropic?

A: Anthropic’s Head of Ethics Research is philosopher Sam McCandlish, a leader in AI alignment.

Q: Will Anthropic’s ownership change when it goes public?

A: Yes, an IPO would allow public investors to buy shares and ownership would diversify.