The seven co-founders of Anthropic are each worth more than US$13 billion (£10 billion) after a filing ahead of the artificial intelligence company’s proposed initial public offering revealed that they hold roughly 1.4 per cent each.
The disclosure places siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who lead Anthropic as chief executive and president respectively, among the world’s 300 richest people. Their fortunes now exceed those of prominent finance billionaires including Bill Ackman and Stan Druckenmiller.
The estimates are based on Anthropic’s valuation of US$965 billion in its most recent funding round. The company’s value has pushed the Amodeis’ estimated wealth sharply higher from an earlier calculation of US$8 billion each.
If Anthropic reaches a US$2 trillion valuation in its initial public offering, a figure previously suggested by investors, each founder’s fortune could rise above US$27 billion before taking account of dilution from newly issued shares.
Anthropic founders retain control
The other co-founders are Tom Brown, Jack Clark, Jared Kaplan, Sam McCandlish and Christopher Olah. All seven have pledged to devote 80 per cent of their personal equity in Anthropic to philanthropic causes.
Despite their relatively small individual stakes, the founders are set to retain significant control under Anthropic’s proposed governance structure. Their Founder LLC controls a Class F share carrying 50.1 per cent of shareholder voting power.
A founder will remain part of the Founder LLC provided they retain at least 2 per cent of the Class A shares they held when the company goes public. In effect, a founder could sell or give away about 98 per cent of that holding while retaining an equal say with the other founders over the controlling share.
The arrangement is partly balanced by Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust, which can appoint and remove four members of the company’s seven-person board. The trust is intended to continue indefinitely, while the founders’ special voting share will eventually expire if fewer than three qualifying founders remain.
Anthropic was established in San Francisco in 2021 by former OpenAI employees who left after disagreements over the direction of that company. In a letter to prospective shareholders, the founders said that AI and Anthropic “represents one of the greatest economic opportunities in history”.
Anthropic’s rapid rise in value
The company’s soaring valuation has come alongside heavy losses. Anthropic reported an US$80.7 billion net loss on revenue of US$16.3 billion in the first six months of 2026, compared with a US$13 billion loss on revenue of US$1.2 billion during the same period a year earlier.
Anthropic confirmed that Dario and Daniela Amodei sold some of their shares through tender offers in 2025 and 2026. A US$157 million tender last year was followed by a US$4.7 billion offering this year, in which the siblings, chief financial officer Krishna Rao and Daniela Amodei’s spouse, Holden Karnofsky, sold shares.
The company also paid US$5 million in regulatory filing fees this year on behalf of the Amodeis relating to their acquisition and ownership of Anthropic securities.
Employees and other option holders stood to make about US$98 billion in potential gains from their holdings as of June. The options could be exercised at an average price of US$2.89 a share, with the underlying stock estimated to be worth more than US$103 billion in total.
Anthropic also operates a scheme allowing employees to donate part of their equity awards to eligible charities, with the company matching those donations in non-voting shares. In August, it recorded a US$2 billion expense linked to employee donations and issued 28 million matching shares.
