Reed Hastings Joins Anthropic’s Board of Directors

Reed Hastings, co-founder and former CEO of Netflix, has been appointed to the board of directors at Anthropic by the company’s Long-Term Benefit Trust.

Hastings led Netflix for over 25 years and has also served on the boards of Facebook, Microsoft, and Bloomberg. 

“I'm joining Anthropic's board because I believe in their approach to AI development and to help humanity progress,” said Hastings in the company’s statement. 

Neil Buddy Shah, chair of the Long-Term Benefit Trust, said Hastings was chosen for his leadership, philanthropy, and commitment to tackling the social challenges of AI.

Hastings recently donated $50 million to Bowdoin College to start a research programme on AI and its impact on work, education, and society. 

He has also given large sums to education and development projects, including support for low-income schools in the US, farming projects in East Africa, and affordable internet in Rwanda.

Anthropic president Daniela Amodei said Reed understands that technology companies have a responsibility beyond making products. She highlighted his focus on how technology affects people through his work at Netflix and in global health and education, making him a great addition to their board as they build AI that helps rather than harms.

Recently, the company unveiled its new AI models, Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4. The launch came at a time when Anthropic needed a strong response to maintain its position against rivals like Google Gemini. 

Claude Opus 4 claims the title of “world’s best coding model”, while Claude Sonnet 4 offers significant improvements over its predecessor. Both models introduce extended thinking capabilities and enhanced tool usage.