Anthropic Asks Candidates About Stock Falling to $0 as $2 Trillion IPO Nears

2 articles · Updated · Fortune · Aug 25

Anthropic is asking job candidates in culture interviews how they would react if the company abandoned AI ambitions for safety reasons and its stock fell to zero.
The question reflects leadership concern that a potential $2 trillion IPO could make more than 2,500 employees extraordinarily wealthy and weaken commitment to Anthropic’s safety-first mission.
Dario Amodei has warned internally and publicly about AI-driven wealth concentration; he and Anthropic’s six other co-founders recently pledged to give away 80% of their wealth.
The tension comes as Anthropic races for talent with 500-plus open roles, staff software-engineering base pay of $320,000 to $405,000, and candidates reportedly spending more than $4,000 on interview coaching.