Anthropic founders get super-voting shares ahead of IPO — and a $10B credit line to fuel AI growth

Anthropic, the artificial intelligence startup behind the Claude language model, is preparing for an initial public offering. According to The Information, the company's co-founders and CEO Dario Amodei will receive a special class of shares that grants them enhanced voting rights, enabling them to resist pressure from external investors after the IPO.

As Reuters reports, Amodei holds no more than 2% of the company's equity. However, with the introduction of super-voting shares, this small stake can be empowered to control key strategic decisions. This structure mirrors practices at other major tech firms: Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, for example, controls 60% of voting power despite owning a disproportionately small share of the company's stock.

Like OpenAI, Anthropic is structured as a public benefit corporation, meaning it must balance commercial interests with broader societal goals. The startup also maintains a special trust tasked with overseeing its long-term humanitarian mission.

Separately, Bloomberg reports that Anthropic is seeking to secure a revolving credit facility worth more than $10 billion. If finalized, this would be one of the largest debt raises among AI startups. The funds are intended to support the expansion of computing infrastructure and the training of next-generation AI models. Sources familiar with the matter say negotiations with banks are at an advanced stage, though final terms have not yet been agreed upon.

The dual moves — granting founders outsized voting control and securing a massive credit line — signal Anthropic's ambition to scale aggressively while keeping strategic direction firmly in the hands of its leadership. The company appears to be following the playbook of SpaceX, whose founder Elon Musk secured near-unrestricted power after its IPO, a model that many pre-IPO startups now seek to replicate.

Anthropic has not publicly commented on the IPO timeline or the credit facility negotiations. The company's valuation has surged in recent funding rounds, reflecting the intense investor appetite for AI technologies. With the proposed voting structure and debt financing, Anthropic aims to maintain its founding vision while competing in the capital-intensive AI race.