---
aliases:
- Anthropic Long-Term Benefit Trust
- LTBT
category: AI & Effective Altruism
created: 2026-09-22
relations:
- fn: 1
  reverse: true
  role: chair
  start: 2023-09
  type: head_of
  with: '[[Neil Buddy Shah]]'
- end: 2023-12
  fn: 1
  reverse: true
  start: 2023-09
  type: member_of
  with: '[[Jason Matheny]]'
- end: 2026-01
  fn: 1
  reverse: true
  start: 2023-09
  type: member_of
  with: '[[Zach Robinson]]'
- fn: 1
  reverse: true
  start: 2025-05
  type: member_of
  with: '[[Richard Fontaine]]'
- fn: 1
  reverse: true
  start: 2026-07
  type: member_of
  with: '[[Ben Bernanke]]'
start: 2023-09-19
summary: Body of financially disinterested trustees empowered to elect a growing share
  of Anthropic's board, founded in 2023 with trustees from RAND, Effective Ventures
  and the AI-safety world; a board majority from 2026.
tags:
- Organization
- Anthropic
- Governance
- EffectiveAltruism
updated: 2026-09-23
---

The Long-Term Benefit Trust is the governance body of [Anthropic](/organizations/anthropic/), announced on September 19, 2023, as "an independent body of five financially disinterested members with an authority to select and remove a portion of our Board that will grow over time (ultimately, a majority of our Board)." An earlier version, the "Long-Term Benefit Committee," had been written into the Series A investment documents of 2021. The structure was designed with John Morley of Yale Law School, lawyers from Wilson Sonsini, and Noah Feldman and Seth Berman of Harvard Law School and Ethical Compass Advisors.[^1]

### Trustees

The initial trustees were [Jason Matheny](/people/jason-matheny/), chief executive of the [RAND Corporation](/organizations/rand-corporation/); Kanika Bahl, chief executive of Evidence Action; Neil Buddy Shah, chief executive of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, as chair; [Paul Christiano](/people/paul-christiano/), founder of the Alignment Research Center; and Zach Robinson, interim chief executive of [Effective Ventures](/organizations/effective-ventures/) US. Matheny stepped down in December 2023 "to preempt any potential conflicts of interest that might arise with RAND Corporation's policy-related initiatives," and Christiano in April 2024 to become head of AI safety at the U.S. AI Safety Institute. Richard Fontaine, chief executive of the Center for a New American Security, joined in May 2025; Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in January 2026, when Bahl and Robinson left; and Ben Bernanke, former chairman of the [Federal Reserve](/organizations/federal-reserve-board/), in July 2026.[^1] Fontaine also sat on Anthropic's [National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council](/organizations/anthropic-national-security-and-public-sector-advisory-council/).[^2]

### The Board

In April 2026 the trust appointed Vas Narasimhan, chief executive of Novartis, to Anthropic's board, and with his appointment "Trust-appointed directors now make up a majority of the Board."[^3]

[^1]: Anthropic, "The Long-Term Benefit Trust," September 19, 2023, with later updates on changes in the trust's composition. https://www.anthropic.com/news/the-long-term-benefit-trust
[^2]: Anthropic, "Introducing the Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council," August 27, 2025. https://www.anthropic.com/news/introducing-the-anthropic-national-security-and-public-sector-advisory-council
[^3]: Anthropic, "Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust appoints Vas Narasimhan to Board of Directors," April 14, 2026. https://www.anthropic.com/news/narasimhan-board