Anthropic PBC’s IPO filing offers a rare look into how seriously it takes threats to its executives’ and employees’ physical safety.
The company spent a combined $4.1 million on security for Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei and President Daniela Amodei last year, which was about 30 times the roughly $135,600 median spent by S&P 500 companies, according to executive compensation research firm Equilar.
“Those values are larger than what we typically see companies pay for security,” said Courtney Yu, Equilar’s director of research. But some high-profile companies spend far more on protection for their top executives, especially after the 2024 assassination[1] of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, he said.
AI leaders have already become targets. In April, San Francisco police arrested a man for throwing a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home.
Anthropic’s spending would rank seventh among S&P 500 companies, behind firms such as Meta Platforms Inc., which spends $22.5 million on security for CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his family, and Alphabet Inc., which spends $8.8 million for CEO Sundar Pichai.
the bar keeps getting lowered ↩︎
I wonder if they reflect on why they need so much security
Only when they can’t pay the bill will they reflect on anything
Any person widely known to have a net worth over $100M typically has a security force of some kind, even if the body guards aren’t visible, they’re there working to ensure their target’s safety.
I worked at a drone company in 2012, we were approached by the security team of a silicon valley wunderkind who liked to roller skate to work - drove them batty, they were interested in running aerial surveillance on his route.
Amodei is a particularly “hot topic” these days, not surprising they’re working overtime.
