SAN FRANCISCO — Anthropic said on Sunday it will commit 5% of its shares to a new public benefit fund, with the stake able to grow as the company's valuation rises, weeks before the maker of the Claude AI assistant is expected to go public.

The commitment takes effect immediately but is subject to stockholder approval, the company said in a blog post. Its board can add a further 2% of shares for every 50% increase in Anthropic's value above a baseline the company has not yet disclosed.

The pledge arrives as the artificial intelligence industry faces growing public anxiety over jobs and safety, and as Anthropic prepares what Al Jazeera described as potentially the largest stock market listing in history. How much the fund is ultimately worth will depend on where the company prices that offering. Al Jazeera reported that analysts forecast a valuation above $2 trillion, a level at which a 5% stake would be worth $100 billion.

The fund, called the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, will be set up as a wholly owned limited liability company rather than a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit, Anthropic said. The company said that structure would let it move between different forms of giving. Equity held by the LLC will not be used for lobbying or political donations in the United States or abroad, it said.

Possible uses include large donations to traditional nonprofits and direct distributions to specific populations, according to the blog post. Anthropic pointed to the labour market as one example. It has already committed $200 million to studying how AI affects work, but "given the pace of AI progress, bolder approaches may be needed," the company said.

Anthropic also framed the fund as an alternative to executive pay. It said it was redirecting equity that might otherwise have gone to executives as escalating compensation awards. "We are instead directing that equity to the public benefit," the company said, according to Al Jazeera.

The new fund sits alongside older commitments. Anthropic's co-founders pledged to donate 80% of their equity when the company was founded, and roughly half of its employees take part in an equity donation programme that the company matches, according to the blog post. Taken together with Sunday's announcement, Anthropic said about 20% of its shares will be dedicated to the public good, before any additions triggered by valuation milestones.

Key questions remain open. Anthropic said it would share more about the fund's structure and governance, including the valuation milestones, in the coming months, and that it would report on progress in a forthcoming public benefit report. TechCrunch noted that the company has not yet said who will decide which public benefits get funded.

Lise Buyer, a partner at the IPO advisory firm Class V Group, told CNBC that the timing was both necessary preparation for a public offering and "beneficial from an image perspective" as AI reshapes the jobs market. She said the move could be viewed favourably if the money supports retraining or helps workers find new employment. "Of course, it is also to burnish their reputation at a time when AI is coming under significant scrutiny," she added.

Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, responded on X that he "recommend[s] giving the shares directly to the public," CNBC reported.

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former employees of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and is registered as a public benefit corporation in Delaware, according to Al Jazeera. That designation requires its leadership to balance shareholder returns with the responsible development of AI.

Chief executive Dario Amodei has acknowledged the public mood. In August he wrote that the backlash against the industry was "fundamentally a crisis of trust," TechCrunch reported at the time.

Polling supports that reading. A Pew Research Center report in August found that 71% of American adults think AI will lead to fewer jobs in the United States over the next two years, according to CNBC. A McKinsey report published last month estimated that as many as 11 million American workers may need to change careers over the next decade because of AI-driven automation, Al Jazeera reported.

The announcement comes at a sensitive moment for the company's finances. Anthropic told investors that its third-quarter revenue stood at $16.8 billion, CNBC reported. Al Jazeera said the company is expected to list on the US stock market before the end of the year.

Anthropic's stockholders must now vote on the 5% commitment. The company said the fund's governance rules and the valuation milestones that could enlarge it would follow in the coming months, and The Associated Press reported that the initial public offering could come as soon as November.