Anthropic spent $2.75m guarding Dario Amodei, four times his salary
Anthropic spent $2,745,874 on personal security for chief executive Dario Amodei in 2025, more than four times his $654,167 salary. The figure is in the company’s IPO filing. The filing also says its co-founders’ pledge to give away 80% of their stakes is not legally binding. Bilin Lin first highli
Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, at Fortune Brainstorm Tech in Park City, Utah, in July 2023.
Anthropic spent $2,745,874 on personal security for chief executive Dario Amodei in 2025, more than four times his $654,167 salary. The figure is in the company’s IPO filing. The filing also says its co-founders’ pledge to give away 80% of their stakes is not legally binding.
Bilin Lin first highlighted the security costs for Fortune, and Robert Frank reported on the giving pledge for CNBC. TNW checked both against the filing, which Anthropic made public on 26 October.
The security spending makes up most of the $4,010,641 listed as Amodei’s “other compensation”. His total pay for 2025 was $17,958,298, mostly stock and option awards.
Anthropic also paid $97,055 for his personal travel by private jet, which his security programme requires. It spent $1,293,629 on protection, home security and transport for his sister Daniela Amodei, the company’s president.
A security firm studied the risks to both siblings in 2025, according to the filing. Based on that study and rising media attention, the board found “bona fide business-related, heightened security concerns” linked to their roles. It started security services for chief financial officer Krishna Rao in 2026 and has not given their cost.
“Heightened public attention on AI has increased physical and informational security risks, and we have experienced threats to employee safety,” Anthropic wrote in the filing’s risk factors.
In August, a Claude user claimed to have Amodei “in his sights”, according to a police report obtained by the San Francisco Standard. In April, a man threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman’s home and later pleaded not guilty.
Meta spent about $22.5m on Mark Zuckerberg’s security in 2025, Fortune found in its filings. Alphabet spent $8.8m on Sundar Pichai’s. The median security cost among software CEOs is $401,336, ISS-Corporate told Fortune.
Anthropic’s seven co-founders have each pledged to give 80% of their personal equity to charity. Amodei owns 240,637,980 shares, and his sister owns 241,408,940.
“These commitments are voluntary, revocable expressions of each co-founder’s philanthropic intent and do not constitute legally binding obligations,” the filing says.
The timing, amount and recipients of any gifts are uncertain, it adds. In January, Amodei wrote that the co-founders had pledged to donate 80% of their wealth. He made the promise in an essay, “ The Adolescence of Technology ”.
“It is sad to me that many wealthy individuals (especially in the tech industry) have recently adopted a cynical and nihilistic attitude that philanthropy is inevitably fraudulent or useless,” he wrote.
Anthropic also matches staff donations of their own shares, a programme the co-founders’ gifts are not eligible for.
Two donor-advised funds, Daffy Charitable Fund and Dechomai Asset Trust, receive donated Anthropic shares. Amodei holds irrevocable proxies to vote those shares, 4,621,120 at the time of filing. Shares given by Amodei or his family are excluded.
Retaining voting rights on donated shares may count as keeping control, according to some fund managers, CNBC reported. Daffy chief executive Adam Nash told CNBC that conditions on voting rights are fairly common for gifts of private stock. He did not comment on Anthropic.
Founder control has already drawn notice in the filing, which leaves Ben Mann out of the founder voting group. Anthropic plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT, and AI listings could fund a wave of philanthropy.
Cristian Dina is the CRO at The Next Web. He has interviewed 300+ industry leaders and authored the book King of Networking, establishing hi (show all) Cristian Dina is the CRO at The Next Web. He has interviewed 300+ industry leaders and authored the book King of Networking, establishing himself as one of the most connected and respected voices in the ecosystem. At just 23 years old, Cristian was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 2025 list, representing a new generation of tech builders, bold thinkers who move fast, build with purpose, and create real impact.
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