Silicon Valley has always had one default setting: leave the upside uncapped.

And it works.

It is a large part of why we have more trillion-dollar market caps today than at any point in market history.

So when a company that took its annualised revenue from $14B in Feb to over $47B by May appears to have a handbrake bolted onto what looks like a pathway into orbit, it is worth a think.

Anthropic is a Public Benefit Corporation.

On its own, that is not the story.

Around 20 PBCs already trade publicly. Laureate listed in 2017. Lemonade and Vital Farms in 2020. Coursera, United Therapeutics, Warby Parker and Allbirds all followed. Veeva became the first listed company to convert into a PBC in 2021.

This road [PBC] is well-travelled. Directors must balance shareholder returns against a public benefit written into the charter and report on it.

What differs is what gets written into that charter.

Allbirds committed to environmental conservation. Warby Parker, to vision and eye health. That’s auditable – you can count the glasses.

Anthropic committed to responsibly developing and maintaining advanced AI for the long-term benefit of humanity.

There is no metric for that. Nothing to count. Which means the charter alone binds nobody.

So Anthropic added something no listed PBC has ever had.

Class T shares.

At first glance the idea rhymes with the mission-locked models across the Atlantic. Rolex, owned entirely by the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation. Novo Nordisk, controlled by the Novo Nordisk (NVO) Foundation.

Until you look closely …

The NVO Foundation holds roughly 28% of the share capital and about 77% of the votes. It holds control. It also holds economic rights – real dividend streams that fund the research the foundation exists to fund.

Control and financial sustenance live under the same roof.

Rolex is the same idea taken further. One trust, 100% ownership, no external shareholders to answer to at all.

Now Anthropic.

Class T carries no economic rights. No dividends. No liquidation preference.

What it carries instead is the right to elect a majority of the board.

Trustees who take nothing out of the company decide who runs it.

That’s the handbrake I was referring to earlier.

Every mission-locked structure pairs governance power with an economic stake. Anthropic has severed the two entirely. Nearly 20 PBCs have listed. None of them arrived with this.

And that sets up a nice predicament.

Its incoming shareholders will want precisely what Silicon Valley shareholders have always wanted – that path into orbit!

The T shares could prove to be annoying.

The 5 trustees have no incentives riding on it.

That is the design.

Upton Sinclair’s observation still holds: it’s difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it

Remains to be seen if the incredible T-shares are much more than mere tokenism.