Who Controls Anthropic? Dario Amodei and the Class F Share

Two bodies control Anthropic. Its seven co-founders, including chief executive Dario Amodei, hold a single Class F share through a company they organized, the Founder LLC. It carries a fixed 50.1% of the vote. The Long-Term Benefit Trust holds a single Class T share that elects a majority of the board. Public Class A holders, together, carry 49.9% of the vote.

Who founded Anthropic, and what does Dario Amodei control?

Seven co-founders, who started the company in 2021. Dario Amodei is its chief executive and his sister Daniela Amodei is its president and chairperson of the board. The other five are Tom Brown, Jack Clark, Jared Kaplan, Sam McCandlish, and Christopher Olah. The S-1 describes them as "a team of researchers responsible for many of the breakthroughs that define AI." For the company's history and backers, see our article on what Anthropic is.

What is the Class F share?

A single share, issued just before the IPO to the Founder LLC, of which the seven co-founders are the initial members. The S-1 says it carries 50.1% of the total voting power on questions put to stockholders. The vote covers electing the directors the Trust doesn't appoint. It has no economic rights, so it receives no dividends and no share of the company's value. And its voting power is fixed: issuing new Class A or Class N shares doesn't dilute it.

What is the Long-Term Benefit Trust?

A body that stands apart from the board and elects most of it. The filing describes the Trust as "an independent body of financially disinterested trustees." It holds the single Class T share. The Class T share elects and can remove the Class T directors, who make up a majority of the board. Like the Class F share, it has no economic rights and no other vote. The Trust has five seats, one of them vacant.

What does it mean that Anthropic is a controlled company?

The S-1 says Anthropic will be a controlled company under the Nasdaq Global Select Market's rules. The reason is that the Trust can elect a majority of the board. Nasdaq lets controlled companies skip some of its governance requirements, such as having a majority of independent directors. The S-1 says Anthropic doesn't expect to use that exemption, apart from its nominating and governance committee. Its board has a majority of independent directors, and its audit and compensation committees are fully independent.

How much stock do the founders own?

Each co-founder holds about 240 million Class A shares, according to the filing's ownership table as of September 30, 2026. Each has also pledged to give away 80% of their Anthropic equity. The S-1 describes those pledges as "voluntary, revocable expressions of each co-founder's philanthropic intent" rather than binding commitments. Those Class A shares carry economic value and one vote each. The founders' collective control comes through the Class F share on top.

What is left for public shareholders?

Economic ownership and a minority of the vote. Class A shares carry one vote each and, taken together, 49.9% of the total. The filing says Class A holders generally won't be able to decide the result of a stockholder vote. Holders of non-voting Class N shares, mainly Amazon and Google, have no vote except where the law requires one. Our article on what one ANT share gives you sets out all five share classes side by side.

The filing lists this concentration of voting power among the risks of owning the stock. It says the structure is expected to stay in place for the foreseeable future. Our article on Anthropic's risk factors separates the risks specific to Anthropic from the standard ones. Our Anthropic bear case covers the governance argument in full.

Key takeaways

• The seven co-founders control the stockholder vote through one Class F share with a fixed 50.1% and no economic value.
• The Long-Term Benefit Trust elects a majority of the board through one Class T share. That makes Anthropic a controlled company under Nasdaq rules.
• Public Class A holders own the economics and 49.9% of the vote, with no route to control. The S-1 lists that among the stock's risks.

Sources

• Anthropic, PBC, Form S-1, SEC EDGAR, October 26, 2026 (description of capital stock, management, principal stockholders, risk factors)
• Fortune via Yahoo Finance, Anthropic's dual-class share structure, October 26, 2026