Anthropic and Elon Musk announced big philanthropic plans. But who benefits?

​Anthropic announced on Sunday that 5% of its shares will go into a new “public benefit fund.” The company claimed it could use a new Limited Liability Company to give large donations to nonprofits or to “specific populations.”

Later that day, Elon Musk said he’ll give a share of SpaceX to every kid in the U.S. next year.

A share of SpaceX is currently worth about $150. So, if Elon Musk does give one to every kid in America, he’d be giving away roughly $10 billion worth of stock, according to Ray Madoff, a professor at Boston College Law School.

“If he does it through a charitable vehicle, his donation could save him taxes equal to about $7 billion,” she said.

Plus, there’s good PR. So, Madoff said that Musk and SpaceX would ultimately benefit more from these plans than anyone who gets one share.

“What's this $150 worth of SpaceX stock going to really do for anybody?” she asked. “Nothing.”

With Anthropic’s “public benefit fund,” it’s hard to know whether or how anyone will benefit, said Steven Dean, a professor at Boston University School of Law.

“You’ve got to read the fine print,” he said.

The fact that Anthropic is setting up an LLC and not a nonprofit foundation means it won’t actually be required to give any money away.

“Even foundations are only required to give away 5% of their assets every year,” Dean said. “And so this would be not required to do anything at all.”

In fact, Dean said, Anthropic could take all the money back at some point if it chose.