Anthropic's S-1 shows Amazon positioned as the IPO's biggest winner and public shareholders with little control over the board

A closer reading of Anthropic's IPO filing shows who stands to gain from the listing and who will control the company afterward. TechCrunch reports that none of Anthropic's venture backers, including Menlo Ventures, Sequoia, Sound Ventures and Spark Capital, owns the 5% needed to appear in the principal stockholders' table. At Anthropic's $965 billion private valuation, Menlo's roughly $14 billion position is only about 1.5% of the company, based on figures reported by Bloomberg. Amazon is likely the largest financial beneficiary. According to the S-1, Amazon held convertible notes with $6.2 billion in principal outstanding as of June 30, which is Anthropic's entire debt load and converts to shares at an IPO. A separate TechCrunch analysis says public shareholders will have little say over most major decisions, including board membership. Anthropic is a public benefit company, and a Long-Term Benefit Trust holds significant control over the board. The board is chaired by president Daniela Amodei and currently has one vacancy. The Verge describes the arrangement as Anthropic's attempt to tap public markets without giving up its safety mission, and says that tension raises open questions. Investors weighing the offering will be buying into a structure designed to limit their influence.