Anthropic’s IPO filing, but make it ‘Succession’

TL;DR: Among the eye-popping numbers in Anthropic’s now-public IPO filing are some genuinely weird details, including a literal handful of very important customers, a strange corporate structure, and a secret line of succession that the Roy kids would kill for.

What happened: Anthropic is gearing up for what could be the biggest IPO ever in a few weeks, and most of what’s in the filing was expected (we’ve covered it here). But the hefty document, which mentions “revenue” about 460 times and “profit” just three (make of that what you will), has a few surprises:

• Only two companies made it onto Anthropic’s list of main rivals—OpenAI and Google (sorry, Meta, SpaceX, and Microsoft).
• A big chunk of its revenue this year (about 25%) came from just five customers through September, and many of them could cut back their spending at any point.
• An estimated 5% to 7% of its revenue during that time was from customers who violated its terms, including by using distillation (training an AI model on a rival model’s output). Anthropic is cutting them off, which could slow growth, it warned.

One share to rule them all: Who gets to steer one of the world’s most powerful AI companies once it goes public? Mostly its seven co-founders, who Anthropic says (four times in its filing) are “distinctly equipped to be stewards of our mission.” And their control is set up in an unusual way—the company is issuing a single special share to an entity called the Anthropic Founder LLC (controlled by the seven of them), which will have 50.1% of the voting power. That means they will always have the biggest say in major decisions put in front of investors, even if they sell every other share they own.

Heir apparent: It gets even stranger: If a co-founder steps away, is incapacitated, or is removed, the power goes down a secret line of succession. Each co-founder has a ranked, confidential list of up to 10 heirs, who are approved by five of the other six founders. The company’s board can ask them to reconsider, but cannot veto their picks. The first eight candidates must be current or former employees at Anthropic or a nonprofit, but there are no rules for the last two spots (yes, theoretically, one could be you).

Bottom line: Anthropic is going public with its financials, but if investors want to have a deciding vote in how the company runs, they’ll need to get on a co-founder’s secret list first. —LC