Artificial intelligence company Anthropic is weighing a plan that would require every employee — not just top executives — to sell company stock through pre-set trading arrangements following its initial public offering, according to a Thursday report from The Information, which cited sources familiar with the discussions.
Anthropic and its competitor OpenAI are both pushing toward going public as strong investor demand for AI technology has driven company valuations sharply higher, with both firms vying to set the standard for how frontier AI companies are valued on the market.
Under the arrangement being considered, all Anthropic employees would be required to use what are known as 10b5-1 trading plans — a type of preset agreement that spells out exactly when, how much, and at what price an employee can sell stock. These plans are typically reserved for senior executives and select finance or legal personnel, making a company-wide requirement unusual.
The plans would allow employees to sell shares outside of the standard trading windows that most public companies open following earnings reports, but would significantly limit workers’ ability to choose the timing and size of their own transactions.
Anthropic is also reportedly weighing how much stock existing shareholders would be permitted to sell on the company’s first day of trading, as well as how long post-IPO lockup periods should last — restrictions that prevent insiders from immediately selling large blocks of shares after a company goes public.
Conversations between Anthropic officials and outside advisers are continuing, and it remains unclear whether the company has reached any final conclusions on the matter. Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
