Anthropic IPO preparations are taking a significant turn as the artificial intelligence company reportedly moves to strengthen voting power for CEO Dario Amodei and other co-founders before a potential Wall Street debut. The proposed structure would give the founders enhanced voting rights, allowing them to maintain greater influence over the company even if their ownership stake remains relatively small.

The move comes at a pivotal moment for Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI platform. After rapidly expanding its valuation and raising billions from investors, Anthropic is preparing for what could become one of the most closely watched technology IPOs in years. The company confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering in June, although it has not committed to a listing date and has emphasized that market conditions will play a role in any decision to go public.

Founders Seek Greater Control

According to a report by The Information cited by Reuters, Anthropic is preparing a special class of stock with additional voting power for Amodei and other co-founders. The structure is intended to protect the company’s leadership from potential pressure by outside shareholders after a public listing.

For Amodei, the issue is particularly important because his personal economic ownership is reportedly relatively small. Reuters reported that the CEO owns roughly 2% of Anthropic, meaning ordinary shares alone would provide limited influence if the company became widely owned by public-market investors. Enhanced voting rights could therefore allow the founders to retain meaningful control without holding a majority of the company’s economic equity.

Such arrangements are not unusual among major technology companies. Dual-class structures have been used by founder-led businesses to separate economic ownership from voting control, allowing founders to preserve long-term strategic authority while raising capital from public investors.

The approach has supporters who argue that founders need room to make long-term investments without being forced into short-term decisions by shareholders. Critics, however, often question whether investors should have limited influence over companies in which they own substantial financial stakes.

Anthropic’s Governance Is Already Different

Anthropic’s proposed founder voting structure would sit within a corporate governance model that is already unusual for a major technology company.

Anthropic operates as a Public Benefit Corporation, with a stated purpose centered on the responsible development and maintenance of advanced AI for the long-term benefit of humanity. Its board is elected by both stockholders and the company’s Long-Term Benefit Trust.

The trust is designed to provide an additional layer of oversight beyond conventional shareholder governance. Anthropic has said the board and trust structure are intended to keep the company’s mission at the center of major corporate decisions.

That means a future Anthropic IPO would not simply be a test of investor appetite for artificial intelligence. It would also put the company’s unusual governance model under much greater public scrutiny.

The company has continued to build out its board as it prepares for the next phase of its growth. In April, the Long-Term Benefit Trust appointed Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan to Anthropic’s board, adding another experienced executive from a highly regulated industry.

IPO Could Become a Major AI Market Test

Anthropic’s potential public offering is arriving during an extraordinary period for AI investment.

The company raised $65 billion in a Series H funding round in May, pushing its valuation to about $965 billion. It then confidentially filed for an IPO in June.

More recently, private-market transactions have reportedly valued Anthropic at substantially higher levels. Business Insider reported that the company reached a private-market valuation of about $1.5 trillion, highlighting the intense investor demand surrounding its potential listing.

Those numbers have raised expectations for what an eventual IPO could look like. The Financial Times reported that some investors were anticipating a valuation as high as $2 trillion, potentially making the offering one of the largest technology listings ever.

But a huge valuation also creates pressure. Public investors will want to understand how much revenue Anthropic can generate, how expensive AI infrastructure will remain and whether the company can defend its position against rivals such as OpenAI and emerging AI developers.

Governance could become another major part of that debate.

Investors Will Watch Voting Rights Closely

If Anthropic proceeds with its IPO, the final registration documents are expected to provide significantly more detail about its ownership structure, voting rights and corporate governance.

For investors, the central question will be whether enhanced founder control represents stability or risk.

Supporters could argue that maintaining founder influence will allow Anthropic to pursue long-term AI research, safety initiatives and infrastructure investments without being overly influenced by quarterly market expectations.

Others may argue that concentrated voting power reduces shareholder accountability, particularly if the company’s valuation reaches extraordinary levels and public investors become major financial stakeholders.

Anthropic has not publicly finalized all details of the proposed arrangement, and the company has not announced a definitive IPO date. Reuters reported that the structure remains under preparation and that final decisions have not been made.

For now, Anthropic’s next move is being watched closely across Silicon Valley and Wall Street. The company is attempting to balance two very different objectives: raising enormous amounts of public capital while preserving the leadership control and mission-driven governance that helped shape its growth.

If Anthropic ultimately enters the public markets, its founder voting structure could become nearly as important to investors as its AI technology. The IPO would not only determine how Wall Street values one of the world’s most prominent AI companies; it could also establish a new blueprint for how powerful AI companies are governed once they become publicly traded businesses.

Source angle: Reuters reporting, citing The Information, on Anthropic’s proposed super-voting shares for CEO Dario Amodei and co-founders ahead of a potential IPO.