How the AI mega-IPOs could reshape philanthropy
Up to $430 billion could go to charity when Anthropic and OpenAI go public, and advisers see a once-in-a-generation opportunity.
By Jack Womack
First came Space X. Now, Anthropic and OpenAI are expected to follow within the year. The age of huge technology company stock market launches, known as mega-IPOs, has truly arrived, creating wealth at an incredible speed.
OpenAI was valued at $852 billion in April, while Anthropic was valued at $965 billion the following month. Many people believe it is realistic for both companies to aim for stock market launches worth $1 trillion. Their founders and investors could see their wealth that they can easily access rise dramatically almost overnight. The charity sector is already starting to plan for what this could mean.
Earlier this year, Nan Ransohoff, head of public goods at financial technology company Stripe, published a widely discussed blog post. She called this moment the 'third wave' of American philanthropy. She argued that the current AI boom could lead to an additional $37 billion to $100 billion being planned for charitable giving each year.
See also: Everything we know so far about Anthropic’s ‘Claude for financial advisers’
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently said that the company's seven co-founders have each promised to give away 80 per cent of their wealth. Forbes estimates that each co-founder is worth about $15.5 billion. In theory, this could mean that the seven founders alone give $86.8 billion to charitable causes. Advisers who help wealthy people give to charity are excited about what this moment could make possible.
The huge amounts of money involved help explain this excitement. According to The Economist, the Anthropic and OpenAI IPOs could make $430 billion available for charity. The publication says that, in today's money, this is roughly equal to the cost of two Marshall Plans.
Ben Morton Wright, who founded the charity advice firm Global Philanthropic, says the Anthropic co-founders' promise to donate 80 per cent of their wealth is 'absolutely the right starting point'. He says it 'could be a whole new model for how we address some of these issues'. However, he warns that the billions of dollars some people expect from the AI boom have not yet arrived.
See also: Is the AI boom bursting wealth management’s bubble?
He adds: 'Have we seen the evidence yet? Probably not. I am in the middle of it all, and I am not seeing hard evidence of billions being committed to some of these big problems.'
Most people who stand to make the biggest fortunes from the coming AI boom are closely connected to the Silicon Valley technology community. Their backgrounds and priorities influence the causes they support and how they give their money.
Effective altruism (EA), an approach that uses reason and data to work out how charitable giving can do the most good, is widely seen as an important influence.
See also: UHNW philanthropy hits $250 billion, as ultra-wealthy fill public funding gaps
Anthropic president Daniela Amodei is married to Holden Karnofsky, one of the founders of Coefficient Giving, which was previously called Open Philanthropy. The organisation was influenced by the ideas of Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher widely regarded as the main thinker behind the effective altruism movement.
According to the Financial Times, more than 60 current and former Anthropic employees have signed the '10 per cent pledge' run by Giving What We Can, a platform connected to effective altruism. People who sign the pledge promise to donate 10 per cent of their wealth.
Sjir Hoeijmakers, the platform's CEO, told Spear's that the organisation focuses its charitable work on three broad areas: global health and development, animal welfare, and threats to humanity. The last area includes dangers that could come from AI itself.
See also: ‘Don’t be scared’: how younger UHNWs should go about giving their money away
Global health has long been a popular cause among wealthy people in the technology industry. GiveWell, which Karnofsky founded, has directed more than $2.6 billion to charitable causes since 2011. It currently lists charities working to fight malaria and vitamin deficiencies among its main recipients.
Hoeijmakers believes effective altruism has become more popular again after the problems caused by Sam Bankman-Fried's conviction in 2023 and the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX.
Hoeijmakers says: 'It's not that everyone is super-confidently saying: “We know exactly what we're doing”, but I think maybe it has grown up a little bit, and there is now more of a grown-up excitement of, yes, let's do this, take into account the lessons we've learned, and grow again.'
Not everyone who could benefit from the Anthropic and OpenAI IPOs follows effective altruism. However, people with deep knowledge of the charity sector believe its ideas have influenced how people in Silicon Valley think about giving.
Abe Grindle, a director at the charity organisation Co-Impact, says: 'There does seem to be a strong effective altruist influence and way of thinking among this crew. I think there's positives to that – it comes from a place of: “We want to actually do as much good as possible with these resources for the world”, so that's a really great thing.'
He adds: 'I think where it falls down or has big risks is when it gets taken to an extreme.'
One criticism of effective altruism's influence on big technology companies is that it puts too much focus on measuring results. Critics say this can also mean turning away from what people traditionally think of as philanthropy.
In her blog post, Ransohoff called for a 'Silicon Valley for public goods'. She argued that thousands of new charitable organisations and businesses would be needed to manage the billions of dollars expected from the AI IPOs.
Not everyone agrees that the charity sector needs to be completely rebuilt. Some people argue that the main goal should instead be to build stronger relationships between technology companies and charities.
See also: Why UHNW donors are turning to unrestricted trust
Morton Wright's organisation, Global Philanthropic, plans to hold a summit in Switzerland this November. More than 300 invited wealthy individuals, policy leaders and United Nations organisations will attend to discuss how charitable giving can work better.
Many people agree that the huge stock market launches planned by Anthropic and OpenAI could change philanthropy. But this will happen only if the new generation of AI philanthropists backs up its promises with real money.
This could mean using fewer donor-advised funds (DAFs). These funds allow people to set aside money for future charitable giving. Critics say they can be attractive because of the immediate tax benefits they offer donors, rather than because they make a real difference to charitable causes. In 2024, DAFs held about $326 billion in the US, according to the DAF Research Collaborative. They continue to grow faster than any other type of charitable giving arrangement.
Ransohoff estimates that Anthropic employees could have as much as $60 billion in donor-advised funds after the IPO, because the company has a programme that matches employees' charitable contributions.
In short, much will depend on what happens when the two major AI companies enter the stock market. Their investors are not the only people waiting eagerly to see what happens.
