Those buying into the Anthropic IPO will not have the rights regular shareholders have historically had to have a say in corporate decision-making. Firstly, as Anthropic prepares to go public, it is protecting the power of its seven founders by creating a special class of stock that would give them extra voting power. Secondly, Anthropic developed a novel structure whereby five individuals (in addition to the founders) will have outsized control over the company’s decisions. In 2023, Anthropic created a Long-Term Benefit Trust, a five-member entity that will have the power, over time, to elect a majority of Anthropic’s board of directors. Additionally, the Trust must also be notified of actions “that could significantly alter the corporation or its business.” This means that Anthropic’s decisions, which can have significant implications for the risk to shareholders’ investments, financial stability, and how AI is developed and deployed, will largely be made by founders and anointed experts at the Trust without regular shareholders having meaningful power or say. 

Anthropic is part of the AI bubble that experts have been increasingly sounding the alarm about. Its bursting has the potential to cause a financial crisis and an economic fallout worse than what we suffered through in 2008 and subsequent years. Our economy is wound up in the AI bubble: as of October 2026, the nine most valuable US companies are tech companies that are betting heavily on AI; just five tech giants have racked up an estimated $3 trillion in debt, including $1.65 trillion hidden off their balance sheets, according to some estimates; many pensions, insurance companies, and other institutional investors are invested in this debt through private credit and other allocations; and banks — the backbone of our financial system — are exposed to the risky debt being lent out by shadow banks to feed the AI speculative frenzy. 

Even if AI ends up being a transformative technology that generates massive profits, it doesn’t mean we wouldn’t face economic devastation from the AI bubble bursting: railroads and the internet were transformative technologies, but their bubbles burst because it took far longer than expected for companies to be able to monetize them. You have a responsibility to protect our investments from the AI bubble, not help fuel it by investing in Anthropic. 

Anthropic depends on data centers, which the public increasingly opposes. A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that seven in ten Americans oppose construction of AI data centers in their area. Data centers cause significant harm: collectively creating enough air pollution to potentially cause an additional 600,000 asthma cases per year and an estimated 1,300 premature deaths by 2030; consuming as much water as a city of 50,000 per data center; and expending an expected 12 percent of total US electricity consumption by 2030, triple the current 4 percent. Meanwhile, data centers have not produced the economic benefits and significant job creation they promised. Reports show data center build out would push vital climate emissions reductions out of reach, even as top insurance experts warn that the climate emergency is destroying the material conditions necessary to preserve global financial stability, threatening catastrophic global economic collapse. Similarly, the International Monetary Fund has warned that the AI financial bubble threatens international financial stability.

Pension funds should not be invested in companies that harm our communities and allow a handful of individuals to accumulate historic fortunes and power while working people continue to struggle to make ends meet. Enough is enough. Stop funding billionaires with working people’s money.