Anthropic has added a cosmologist to the group that holds unusual power over its board. Christopher Stubbs, an astrophysicist at Harvard University, has been named to the company’s Long-Term Benefit Trust.
Who Stubbs is, and what he just joined
Stubbs works in observational cosmology. He is best known for research showing that the universe is not just expanding but speeding up as it goes.
Stubbs later led the ESSENCE supernova cosmology project. He was also part of the High-Z supernova team. His work has extended to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory as well.
His new seat is a different kind of frontier. The Long-Term Benefit Trust, often shortened to LTBT, can elect a majority of Anthropic’s board of directors.
It does that through a special class of shares called Class T stock. Under the arrangement, the trust gains the right to elect a board majority within four years of the close of Anthropic’s Series C round. For now, it has the authority to elect three board members.
The trust is built for up to five trustees. Stubbs fills one of two open seats, which leaves one chair still empty.
Trustees hold no equity in Anthropic. They are paid only on a time-based basis for their work advising on AI risks and the technology’s broader effects on society.
Why Anthropic built a trust in the first place
Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI models, was founded in 2021. It is structured as a public benefit corporation, a legal form that lets a company weigh a stated mission alongside shareholder returns.
The LTBT arrived in 2023. Its job is to keep the company’s governance tied to that mission, even as outside money pours in.
What this means as Anthropic heads toward the public markets
The appointment lands as Anthropic’s potential IPO draws closer. Reports place a possible listing as soon as November 2026.
The company’s value is estimated in the hundreds of billions. Speculation about what it could fetch has climbed as high as $2 trillion.
The LTBT complicates that expectation. A body with no equity, able to pick most of the directors, is not what a typical prospectus buyer is used to seeing.
Fortune noted that the arrangement could come under more pressure if the company lists. The trust agreement that governs the LTBT has not been published, which has drawn concerns about how much outsiders can really know about its rules.
The first is who fills the last open trustee seat. The second is whether Anthropic discloses more about the trust agreement in any IPO filing. The third is how the trust’s authority evolves as the four-year window after the Series C plays out. Moving from three board seats to a majority would be a real shift in control.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.