In February 2026, Anthropic, an AI firm, rolled out a stock buyback program tailored for both its current and former staff members. This program was carried out based on the company's most recent valuation of $380 billion, following a successful fundraising round that garnered between $5 billion and $6 billion. Notably, the buyback scheme does not impose any mandatory participation quotas, granting employees the autonomy to decide whether or not to divest their incentive equity stakes. This strategic move empowers employees to achieve equity liquidity without the prerequisite of the company going public or undergoing a merger and acquisition, thereby providing invaluable insights for leading AI enterprises that opt to remain privately held for prolonged durations.
