AI Wealth Could Reshape American Philanthropy

A wave of wealth from artificial intelligence companies could generate some of the largest charitable sums since the era of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, raising questions about where the money will go. Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot, has committed 5 percent of its shares to a public benefit fund potentially worth around $100 billion. Anthropic's pledge, combined with co-founders giving away 80 percent of their equity and employee donation matching, dedicates roughly a fifth of its shares to public benefit. The OpenAI Foundation holds a 26 percent stake in ChatGPT maker OpenAI valued at about $130 billion, exceeding the Gates Foundation's endowment. Stripe's Nan Ransohoff calls this a "third wave" of American philanthropy. Anthropic's fund is structured as a wholly owned limited liability company, not a nonprofit, meaning transparency is voluntary and decision-making stays with the company. Many founders have ties to effective altruism, favoring causes like AI safety and global health. Elon Musk has criticized the approach, recommending giving shares directly to the public.