July 23 - Anthropic is considering a policy that would compel ordinary employees to adopt 10b5-1 stock trading plans after the company goes public, according to people familiar with internal discussions. The move would extend a tool normally reserved for senior executives and certain finance and legal staff to the broader workforce in an effort to address insider-trading concerns as the company prepares to list.
The company, known for creating the Claude codebase and competing with OpenAI, is part of a cohort of artificial intelligence firms that are accelerating toward public offerings as investor interest in AI lifts valuations across the sector. As part of its IPO planning, Anthropic is said to be debating the extent to which employees should be required to use preset trading schedules that specify timing, quantity and price of share sales.
Under 10b5-1 plans, stock sales follow a predetermined schedule and set of conditions rather than being executed at the discretion of individual holders. That structure can permit sales outside normal trading windows tied to quarterly earnings releases while simultaneously restricting employee control over the timing and size of trades.
Company officials and external advisers remain in active discussions about the proposal, and sources said it was not clear whether a final decision had been reached. Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In addition to the potential expansion of 10b5-1 plans, Anthropic is reportedly weighing how much stock existing shareholders would be permitted to sell on the first trading day and what the length of any post-IPO lockup period should be. Those choices are common elements of IPO planning and can affect initial market supply and investor perception.
Public companies commonly allow most employees to sell shares during designated trading windows that follow earnings announcements. Extending preset trading plans to a wider employee base would create an alternative route for sales outside those windows, while reducing individual discretion over trading decisions.
Discussions about mandatory trading plans, day-one sale allowances and lockup durations are ongoing and no definitive course of action has been publicly announced. The company and its advisers are weighing the trade-offs tied to regulatory exposure and orderly market behavior ahead of a potential public listing.