At the $74 midpoint of Anthropic’s IPO range, the 846,840,960 shares the company put in its Public Benefit Fund are worth $62.7 billion, by our arithmetic. That is 68% of the Gates Foundation Trust’s $92 billion endowment and 2.3 times the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s $27.6 billion in net assets.
Across the whole $70 to $78 range, the fund’s $59.3 billion to $66.1 billion stays above the UK’s Wellcome, about $48.0 billion, and below the Lilly Endowment’s $105.9 billion, by our arithmetic. OpenAI says the stake held by its own foundation is worth over $180 billion.
Business Pill · Concentration
A short explainer on concentration, when a few holders or customers account for most of a total. It teaches the general idea and does not discuss Anthropic, its fund or the foundations in this piece.
The key insight: As we read it, Anthropic’s fund would start life in the same size class as the largest American endowments: $62.7 billion at the $74 midpoint, 68% of the Gates Foundation Trust and 2.3 times HHMI, by our arithmetic, all of it in shares of one company.
The S-1/A Anthropic filed on 10 November says it contributed 846,840,960 shares of Class N common stock, “representing 5% of our fully diluted shares as of June 30, 2026”, to Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary. Our first piece on the fund covered what Dario Amodei told Jamie Dimon about it.
The Gates Foundation’s fact sheet puts the Foundation Trust endowment at $92 billion as of 30 June 2026, unaudited, and $89 billion at the end of 2025. Against $89 billion the fund at $74 is 70%, by our arithmetic.
The Lilly Endowment’s Form 990-PF for 2025 reports $105,904,049,946 as the fair market value of all its assets at 31 December 2025. The fund at $74 is 59% of that, by our arithmetic.
Wellcome said its total funds, the investment portfolio less all liabilities, rose to £35.7 billion in the year to 30 September 2025, with the portfolio at £39.9 billion. At European Central Bank reference rates for that date, £35.7 billion is about $48.0 billion, and the fund at $74 is 1.3 times that, by our arithmetic.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s audited statements show net assets of $27.6 billion at 31 August 2025, and the Ford Foundation’s audited statements show $16.1 billion at 31 December 2025. The fund at $74 is 2.3 times and 3.9 times those, by our arithmetic.
The value of Anthropic’s Public Benefit Fund at the $74 midpoint of its IPO range against the latest figure each organisation reports. Measures and dates differ: endowment (Gates, unaudited), fair market value of assets (Lilly), total funds converted from sterling (Wellcome), net assets (HHMI, Ford) and OpenAI’s own valuation of its foundation’s stake. Fund values and the conversion are our arithmetic.
OpenAI’s Foundation, the Closest Peer
OpenAI says on its structure page that “the OpenAI Foundation holds a 26% equity stake in OpenAI Group, worth approximately $130B based on OpenAI Group’s current valuation”, as of the closing of its recapitalization. The page says the updated structure was announced on 28 October 2025.
Announcing “$110B in new investment at a $730B pre-money valuation”, OpenAIsaid the round “increases the value of the OpenAI Foundation’s stake in OpenAI Group to over $180 billion”. Anthropic’s fund at $74 is about 35% of that figure, by our arithmetic.
Both figures value one company’s shares at the price of a funding round or an IPO range, not a traded price. The 26% OpenAI states for its foundation compares with the 5% of fully diluted shares Anthropic states for its fund.
Two AI labs’ charitable stakes. OpenAI’s figures are its own: about $130 billion at its recapitalization and over $180 billion after its $110 billion round. Anthropic’s are our arithmetic at the $70 and $78 ends of the S-1/A range; the IPO has not priced.
What the Fund Can Do With Its Shares
The shares contributed to the fund “may be transferred or donated to a third party, or otherwise sold in a registered public offering or private placement transaction in furtherance of our public benefit initiatives”, the S-1/A says.
Anthropic’s board decides allocations and distributions until it approves a governance structure for the fund; the initial managers are Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, Jack Clark and Dr. Neil “Buddy” Shah, the filing says. The board may also add up to 2% of then-outstanding shares each time the share price rises 50% above the prior milestone, at its discretion.
The Structural Read
As we read the comparison, the closest peer is not a classic endowment but OpenAI’s foundation: both hold a stake in their own AI lab, valued at a funding-round or IPO-range price rather than a traded one.
As we read the filing, the fund’s size can move with the stock in two ways: the value of its 846,840,960 shares, and the board’s discretionary top-ups of up to 2% of shares per 50% rise.
Anthropic S-1/A, 10 November 2026
“As the value we create grows, we intend for the public benefit to share meaningfully in that growth as well”
Three Implications
FOR THE COMPARISON Gates $92 billion (30 June 2026, unaudited), Lilly $105.9 billion (fair market value, end-2025), Wellcome about $48.0 billion (our conversion), HHMI $27.6 billion and Ford $16.1 billion (net assets).
FOR THE RANGE At $70 the fund is worth $59.3 billion and at $78 $66.1 billion, by our arithmetic; it sits between Wellcome and Gates at every price in the range.
FOR THE TIMELINE Pricing is expected on 18 November and trading on 19 November, per Anthropic’s IPO website filed with the SEC.
The framework describes a Barbelled Distribution Economy in which “value concentrates at the extremes (massive-scale platforms and deep-niche specialists); the middle hollows out”.
As we read it, a $62.7 billion charitable stake in one AI lab, beside an OpenAI foundation stake OpenAI values at over $180 billion, is that barbell showing up in philanthropy. The framework predates both funds and does not discuss them.
What Is Not Established
The comparisons mix measures and dates: an endowment figure for Gates, fair market value of assets for Lilly, total funds for Wellcome, net assets for HHMI and Ford, and OpenAI’s own valuation of its foundation’s stake. The dates run from August 2025 to June 2026, and the Gates figures are unaudited.
The fund’s value uses the S-1/A’s price range, not a market price; pricing is expected on 18 November and trading on 19 November, per Anthropic’s IPO website filed with the SEC. The dollar conversion for Wellcome is ours. We did not contact Anthropic or the foundations for this piece.
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At $74 a share, Anthropic’s Public Benefit Fund would be worth $62.7 billion, 68% of the Gates Foundation Trust’s $92 billion endowment and 2.3 times HHMI’s $27.6 billion in net assets, by our arithmetic. OpenAI puts its foundation’s stake at over $180 billion.
A note on sourcing. The fund’s share count, terms and the price range are from Anthropic’s S-1/A (Amendment No. 2) filed with the SEC on 10 November 2026; the pricing and trading dates are from its IPO website, filed as a free writing prospectus. The comparison figures are each organisation’s own: the Gates Foundation’s fact sheet, the Lilly Endowment’s Form 990-PF for 2025 (read via ProPublica), Wellcome’s 13 January 2026 announcement of its 2024/25 results, the audited statements of HHMI (fiscal year to 31 August 2025) and the Ford Foundation (2025), and OpenAI’s structure page and funding announcement.
The sterling conversion uses European Central Bank euro reference rates for 30 September 2025. Fund values, ratios and the conversion are our arithmetic. We did not contact Anthropic or the foundations for this piece.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
