Anthropic's plan to dedicate at least 5% of its shares to a public benefit fund has prompted a range of reactions from excitement to doubt. Details on the fund's operations are still unclear, yet the company indicated it would form a separate corporation to handle the donations with those shares.

Here is what observers are saying.

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceXAI

Musk, whose SpaceXAI competes with Anthropic, shared his own ideas in an X post about the announcement. "I recommend giving the shares directly to the public," he wrote. "This is what I will be doing."

Palmer Luckey, Anduril cofounder

The Anduril Industries cofounder voiced worries about the causes Anthropic might support. "The problem is that their definition of 'public good' is helping everyone else, not the American public," he wrote on X. "If they would commit to helping America and Americans, that would be one thing, but this reeks of USAID 2.0, just another way to funnel billions out of our own economy."

Andrew Curran, AI analyst

The noted AI analyst focused on a passage in Anthropic's statement about possibly exploring "direct distributions to specific populations." Curran wrote on X: "It sounds to me like they are planning their own form of self-directed global UBI," referring to universal basic income that some predict will be needed if AI cuts jobs sharply. "About half of Anth employees are also donating shares into this fund," Curran added. "They foresee a transformative future."

Brad Gerstner, CEO of Altimeter Capital

Gerstner commended Anthropic for its philanthropic commitments, calling the effort an extraordinary gift. He also cautioned about foundation wealth concentration. Like Musk, he wrote, "I hope a meaningful portion of AI's wealth is a direct dividend."

Sam Hogan Heutmaker, CEO of Inference

The CEO compared Anthropic's charity plan to OpenAI, which started as a nonprofit before shifting to a commercial model. "This will come to be known as 'the reverse OpenAI'," he wrote on X. "start as C corp, raise lots of money > once successful, start 'independent' non profit > start concentrating value into this new entity, which you and your homies control." "It's genius," he added.

Gary Marcus, professor at NYU

Marcus viewed the announcement as a publicity effort. "Anthropic is playing games here," he wrote on X. "Trying to curry public favor while still holding control and resisting disclosure is annoying. And reeks of desperation."

Patrick Moorhead, CEO of Moor Insights and Strategy

Moorhead questioned whether Anthropic would retain too much sway over fund allocation. "If it's dedicated entirely the 'public benefit' why don't they just give it to the public and citizens where they can directly benefit? Seems like the public would know what to do with the money better than bureaucratic institutions," he wrote on X.