Anthropic’s potential $2 trillion IPO could turn staff into millionaires - but the AI firm is asking candidates what they’d do if stock fell to zero

As Anthropic targets a November IPO at a $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion valuation—potentially eclipsing SpaceX’s record —the blockbuster debut could mint a new class of wealthy tech workers among its more than 2,500 employees.

But that potential multimillion-dollar employee windfall appears to be raising concern among company leaders. Anthropic is reportedly asking job candidates during culture interviews how they would feel if the company someday abandoned its AI ambitions for safety reasons—and that decision caused its stock to fall to zero, according to Axios .

“I was honest and said no, I would not be happy if the stock went to 0,” one candidate, who discussed the interview process on the anonymous workplace site Blind , said. “I would want to align doing the most good and remaining ethical while building a sustaining business.”

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who has an estimated net worth of $13.6 billion, has reportedly expressed concerns about the way the company’s enormous financial incentives could affect its ability to retain employees who are genuinely committed to its mission. Anthropic, a public benefit corporation, has long sought to distinguish itself from competition like OpenAI through a broader focus on AI safety and the “long-term benefit of humanity.”

“At the end of the day, the mission is what we’re all here for,” the company’s values statement reads . “It gives us a shared purpose and allows us to act swiftly together, rather than being pulled in multiple directions by competing goals.”

Anthropic is simultaneously fighting to attract the world’s top AI talent while grappling with what could happen if that talent becomes extraordinarily wealthy in the process.

The company is competing with the likes of Meta , Google , Microsoft , and OpenAI for top researchers and engineers—and resultantly offering compensation packages well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The competition is so fierce that Anthropic acknowledged in its S-1 filing dated Oct. 26 that hiring and retaining qualified employees has become exceptionally difficult, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the company is headquartered.

“Competition in our industry relating to hiring and retaining employees with appropriate qualifications and on competitive economic terms is exceptionally intense and has escalated significantly in recent periods,” the company said.

Anthropic is currently dangling base salaries of $350,000 to $850,000 for staff software engineering roles, for example . And there’s plenty more work to be done. The company currently has more than 600 open roles , including about 120 in , over 60 in AI research & engineering, and 50 in security.