Anthropic has named Christopher Stubbs, a Harvard University astrophysicist, to its Long-Term Benefit Trust. The trust has the power to elect a majority of the AI company’s board, an unusual corporate governance arrangement that is likely to come under increased pressure if the company goes public, as it is widely expected to do as soon as next month.
Stubbs’s appointment fills one of two open seats on the Trust. He is best known for his work showing that the universe’s expansion is accelerating, a counterintuitive finding that scientists speculate is the result of a previously undocumented force known as “dark energy.” Stubbs later headed the ESSENCE supernova cosmology project which gathered further evidence on the nature of dark energy. In 2015, Stubbs and other members of the High-Z Supernova Search Team, which had made the original dark energy findings, were awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.Stubbs was also the first project scientist for what is now the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, which began a decade-long survey of the southern sky this past summer. In addition to being a professor, he was Harvard University’s Dean of Science from 2018 to 2024. And he serves as a member of JASON, the independent group of scientists that advises the U.S. government on defense and technology.
Daniela Amodei, Anthropic’s cofounder and president, said Stubbs had a track record of following data and evidence “even when it went against the prevailing wisdom of the field.” She said that “as AI starts to transform how science itself is done, [Stubbs’] intellectual honesty, rigor, and commitment to the truth are the values we want shaping the future of this technology, and I’m grateful he’s bringing his deep expertise to the Trust.”
Neil Buddy Shah, the CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and chair of Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust, cited his experience leading “large, complex, collaborative scientific endeavors across academia, government, and the national laboratories.”Anthropic said Stubbs has recently written about the challenge of ensuring AI-assisted research remains reproducible when AI models can give different answers to the same question.
“I use AI tools in my research every day and see what they make possible, and as an educator I have confronted some of the hard questions they raise,” Stubbs said in a statement. “As a grandfather, I want to help ensure that AI is developed and deployed for the long-term benefit of humanity.”Stubbs is the first physicist to be appointed to the Trust. He joins Shah; Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Center for a New American Security; and former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, who joined in July. The remaining vacancy on the Trust opened in August, when former California Supreme Court Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar left the Trust to become Anthropic’s first chief global affairs officer.
Anthropic is a Public Benefit Corporation, which means it is legally required to weigh its stated mission—which it specifies as the “responsible development and maintenance of advanced AI for the long-term benefit of humanity”—alongside shareholder returns. The Trust holds a special class of stock with no economic value. That stock gives the Trust the right to elect a growing share of Anthropic’s seven-person board, and eventually a majority. Trustees are independent of management and investors. They advise leadership on major decisions, especially those involving AI’s risks and impact on society.
The Trust’s power is getting new scrutiny as the IPO approaches. Anthropic confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the SEC in June. Reports suggest the IPO could value the company at more than $2 trillion. Anthropic was valued at $965 billion in a funding round in May. The company has also reportedly planned super-voting shares for its founders. Critics say this structure, together with the Trust, would leave public shareholders little say over the company’s strategic direction.
Last weekend, Anthropic said it would put 5% of its shares into a new Public Benefit Fund. This is separate from the Trust. The company said the new fund would make donations to philanthropic organizations as well as possibly support people directly who have been negatively impacted by AI, for instance workers who had lost their jobs to AI-powered automation.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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