Anthropic CEO calls for AI slowdown as Nvidia eyes $10B IPO stake

Nvidia ↘ 0.03% is in discussions to invest up to $10 billion as an anchor investor in Anthropic's initial public offering, which could become the largest in history, Reuters reported exclusively on Friday.reuters

Anthropic is seeking to raise as much as $100 billion through the offering, at a valuation of roughly $2 trillion, according to two people familiar with the matter. The plans remain under discussion and could change, the sources cautioned, requesting anonymity because the negotiations are confidential.srnnews+1

A Deepening Partnership

The potential IPO investment would build on an existing financial relationship between the two companies. In November 2025, Nvidia announced plans to invest up to $10 billion in Anthropic as part of a broader partnership, under which the AI company committed to purchasing $30 billion of Microsoft ↗ 0.65% Azure computing capacity powered by Nvidia chips. Anthropic's largest backer remains Amazon Amazon.com, Inc. ↗ 1.94%, which has committed billions in prior funding rounds.techmarketbriefs+2

Anthropic filed a confidential registration statement with the SEC on June 1, 2026, and has been targeting a listing on Nasdaq ↘ 0.89% in October, with marketing expected to begin in mid-October at the earliest. Reuters reported last week that the timeline had shifted, with the company now aiming to complete the listing days before the U.S. midterm elections in November.zacks+1

Safety Concerns Shadow the IPO Push

The investment talks come at a turbulent moment for Anthropic. On Saturday, CEO Dario Amodei published an essay calling on the AI industry to slow the pace of model development, warning that unchecked progress could lead to rogue AI agents capable of "taking over the entire internet" within months. Amodei announced that Anthropic would unilaterally grant external evaluators employee-level access to its systems to verify safety procedures.axios+2

His appeal followed the resignation of researcher Jacob Coxon, who left Anthropic on September 9 after previously working at OpenAI, accusing both companies of "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives". OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google Alphabet Inc. ↗ 1.53% DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis both expressed agreement with the need to slow development.nytimes+2

"AI brings risks, and because it is such a powerful technology, these risks are serious," Amodei wrote. "The measures I propose to advance the frontier at a safe pace will not be easy. But I believe we owe it to humanity to try".thehill