What Amodei’s AI slowdown could mean for Anthropic’s imminent IPO
What Amodei's AI slowdown could mean for Anthropic's imminent IPO. As Anthropic meets with prospective investors ahead of its potentially historic market debut, CEO Dario Amodei is pushing for a slowdown in AI.
What happened
Amodei cited RSI as a major factor in his decision to call for a slowdown: “since roughly this summer, AI has been advancing drastically faster. ” He wrote in his recent essay that RSI is “starting to happen across the industry, including at Anthropic … Left unchecked, it could outrun our ability to understand and control these systems, and so must be pursued very carefully, if at all. ” Amodei proposed implementing “some kind of ‘speed limit’” on the rate of RSI and compared it to caps on missile numbers.
It follows Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's calls for a slowdown in AI development – but in a way that prevents China from pulling ahead in the AI race. When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis, and SpaceX head Elon Musk loosely agreed over the weekend to slow down AI development, skeptics spotted an ulterior motive immediately. Kokotajlo’s AI Futures Project, for instance, proposed AI labs giving auditors access to their compute budget — and pledging to decrease their compute budget for research significantly, which would then slow down AI advancement and allow other AI labs to catch up. (Amodei’s essay already called for AI labs to allow external third-party auditors — like METR, Apollo, and Redwood Research — to embed within their organizations to some extent and potentially be able to flag, and blow the whistle on, problematic findings. )“If I am going to die at the hands of killer AI, I want it to be American, not Chinese. ”Arguably the single biggest challenge to an AI slowdown can be summarized in one word: China.
Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei called on the US government to regulate AI companies within a wider effort to slow the pace of the technology’s development in an essay published Saturday. While these measures will have “significant costs,” he wrote on X: “Pacing will be well worth this cost; no amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness. ”CommentsBack to topJoin the discussionCommentsBack to topYou Might Also LikeIn your inbox: WIRED's most ambitious, future-defining storiesAI slop backlash is actually having an impactBig Story: The cop who took on FlockThe rise of the 1am job interviewWatch: I stole a car by hacking this hidden deviceTopicsDonald Trumpagentic AIElon MuskSam AltmanDario Amodeiartificial intelligenceAnthropicOpenAIChinaTop eBay Coupons in September 2026Save up to 60% on a selection of items at eBay, including electronics, home products, card games, car parts and more.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay over the weekend, calling on governments and the industry to impose more thorough safety standards.
The wider picture
FGFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNTDario Amodei, co-founder and chief executive officer of Anthropic, during an interview on "The Circuit with Emily Chang" at Anthropic's headquarters in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday, April 30, 2026. Jason Henry | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesAfter the leaders of Anthropic, OpenAI and other artificial intelligence companies spent the weekend warning of the dangers of advanced AI and calling for a slowdown in model development, President Donald Trump filled up his social media feed on Monday with posts undermining those efforts.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay over the weekend urging AI companies to slow their pace of development, after safety researchers Jacob Coxon and Joe Benton resigned from his lab, citing shared fears inside the industry that AI systems could potentially kill all humans. "Amodei said Anthropic is committed to giving evaluators "employee-like access" to monitor and verify the safety of the company's models. Meanwhile, Trump's former AI czar, David Sacks, continued to criticize what he's repeatedly called Anthropic's "regulatory capture" campaign.
Photograph: Michael Dwyer/APAnalysisWhy a decade of doomsday warnings failed to slow the AI raceJohana BhuiyanFrom Stephen Hawking to Jacob Coxon’s viral Anthropic resignation, fears that AI could threaten humanity have shaken the industry without stopping its pursuit Before an Anthropic researcher resigned and declared human extinction imminent last week, tech leaders and scientists had sounded the alarm about a superintelligent AI ending humanity for over a decade. Days later, the CEOs of the leading US AI firms answered a call from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to slow down what he called a “reckless” approach to creating AI.
Founded by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, Anthropic pitches itself as an “AI safety and research company” with a familiar mission: Developing and deploying AI models “in a way that benefits people”.
What has been reported
FGAVGOFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNTwatch nowVIDEO2:1402:14Generative AI will create huge value to enterprises and people, says Broadcom CEO Hock TanMad Money with Jim CramerBroadcom CEO Hock Tan on Monday brushed off concerns about what a potential slowdown in frontier AI model development could mean for the chipmaker's business, telling CNBC that the company stands by its long-term revenue targets. Tan's comments came as investors were rattled by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's weekend essay advocating for a moderation in the pace of model development.
Tan also said Anthropic is on track to become Broadcom's largest custom chip customer in 2027 and sustain that designation in 2028 — illustrating why Broadcom investors are so sensitive to Amodei's commentary. And whatever Dario said this weekend won’t stop our progressThis made my morning! $NVDA pic. twitter. com/Sr4wV9kMfz— Ben Pouladian ✈️ All-in Summit (@benitoz) September 14, 2026 “The great thing about life is Jensen can develop the most complex computer chip in the world … but he can’t figure out how to put you on speaker,” Trump said on the phone. (Huang is likely aware of how speakerphones work; he was asking stagehands for an extra microphone so that he could project the call to the audience. ) Onstage, Huang and the All-In hosts had been discussing Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to “slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI. ” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have publicly said they agree with Amodei, while Huang’s views have diverged.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty ImagesAfter using his social media site to blast Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's push for the AI industry to slow down development, President Donald Trump went a step further on Monday. Tech stocks fall after calls for AI development to slow downQuestions mount over what an AI 'slowdown' would look likePublished1 day agoAnthropic researcher believes more than 10% chance AI 'could kill all humans'Published5 days agoOn Monday, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters that "narratives of threat, confrontation, and malicious competition serve only to disrupt the process of global AI governance and are not in anyone's interest".
Since then top industry bosses, such as Dario Amodei, have called for a slowdown and more regulation. The former Anthropic employee Coxon told the BBC that there needed to be "some sort of coordinated slowdown with China, if we're going to avoid a race at an international scale".
What happens next
AIPolicyReportIs Big Tech’s AI slowdown a safety pact or a cartel? Major AI companies want to ‘pace the frontier’ — but their proposed solutions need real teeth. by Hayden FieldSep 14, 2026, 10:59 PM UTC Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesAIPolicyReportIs Big Tech’s AI slowdown a safety pact or a cartel? The AI titans had declared that their aim was to “pace the frontier,” signing on at least partially to a proposal for embedding third-party auditors, regulating domestic labs, and reaching a global slowdown agreement.
The three-step proposal, laid out in an essay by Amodei, is calling for changes long espoused by AI safety advocates. “We’ve looked at people like Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk as these people who are closest to the problem and working on it every day, and they’re the ones who know best. But the truth is there’s never been a realistic vision for what we’re building toward. ”“The industry as a whole needs new champions. ”Concerns about AI advancement have been escalating for months, sparked largely by revelations that swarms of agents were behind rogue hacks going on right under the noses of leading frontier labs Anthropic and OpenAI.
Reports from both companies fueled the fire, as did the resignation of Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who posted a public letter explaining his choice.
The report has been compiled by The Daily Waves using information reported across theverge.com, wired.com, cnbc.com, theguardian.com. Details are presented according to the information available at the time of publication and may change as authorities, organisers or other relevant parties provide updates.