[News] Anthropic CEO Calls for Slower AI Progress but Flags China Risk; OpenAI Reportedly Rules Out 2026 IPO

As AI capabilities continue to advance, industry leaders are increasingly grappling with how to slow development for safety reasons without giving geopolitical rivals an advantage. According to CNBC, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said that the “toughest dilemma” surrounding his proposal to slow AI progress is what happens if adversarial nations, particularly China, choose not to follow suit.

Amodei said the longer-term goal would be for countries to work together to put a “speed limit” on AI progress, though he acknowledged that the incentives to pull ahead are enormous given the potential military advantages. His comments followed an essay calling on AI companies to slow the pace at which they improve their most advanced models. The proposal comes after industry researchers issued stark warnings about AI’s growing potential to cause catastrophic harm, CNBC notes.

In the essay, Amodei outlined a three-step plan designed to slow AI development without “sacrificing commercial advantage or the United States’ lead in AI.” Anthropic has already “unilaterally” committed to the first step, Amodei said, giving third-party evaluators employee-level access to verify the company’s safety practices and report incidents. The second step calls for leading AI companies in democratic countries to coordinate on common safety standards, while the third would extend that coordination to governments, including both democratic and authoritarian countries.

Despite years of tensions between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Amodei, the report notes that Altman voiced support for Amodei’s essay, agreeing on the need to “adjust the pace of advanced technology.” Google DeepMind CEO and Alphabet Chief Scientist Demis Hassabis, as well as Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, also expressed support for Amodei’s proposal.

Amodei’s concerns over whether China would join efforts to slow AI development come as Beijing is also advancing its own vision for global AI governance. CNBC notes that Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday called for a “consensus-based global AI governance framework” at the BRICS summit in India and said China would help establish a BRICS AI open-source community. BRICS held its inaugural summit in 2009 and now comprises 11 countries, including China, India, Russia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Anthropic Eyes Mega IPO While OpenAI Rules Out 2026 Listing

Amodei’s proposal also comes as competition among leading AI companies continues to intensify. That competition is increasingly extending beyond technology, with Anthropic and OpenAI both laying the groundwork for potentially historic IPOs.

Anthropic is reportedly in talks to bring NVIDIA on board as an anchor investor for what could become the largest IPO in history. According to Reuters, the AI startup is seeking to raise as much as $100 billion at a valuation of around $2 trillion, with NVIDIA considering an investment of up to $10 billion. The listing is expected to be completed before the U.S. midterm elections in November. As for OpenAI, Fortune reports that CEO Sam Altman has ruled out an IPO in 2026, saying that going public right now would be “ill-advised.”

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• [News] Anthropic Reportedly Eyes Custom AI Chip; in Talks with Samsung for 2nm Foundry and Advanced Packaging

(Photo credit: Anthropic on LinkedIn)