Stocks tumble after Anthropic, OpenAI CEOs call to slow AI development

A joint call from the leaders of the two most prominent artificial intelligence companies to slow the pace of frontier AI development sent shockwaves through global markets on Monday, deepening a rift between Silicon Valley safety advocates and political leaders eager to maintain a technological edge over China.

The Call for Restraint

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a lengthy essay on Saturday calling on the AI industry to slow development of its most advanced models, warning that recursive self-improvement — AI systems capable of building better versions of themselves — "could outrun our ability to understand and control these systems, and so must be pursued very carefully, if at all." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backed the proposal in a post on X, while also telling Fortune that his company would not go public this year as it prioritizes safety.bloomberg+1

The announcements followed a turbulent week in which former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned and warned publicly that the companies are racing to create "self-improving superintelligence." Anthropic's own Alignment Science Lead, Evan Hubinger, then replied that he believes there is a greater-than-10% chance the technology could "kill all humans."finance.yahoo

Anthropic committed to embedding third-party evaluators within the company to assess its AI models and verify adherence to safety practices. The Wall Street Journal News Corp ↘ 3.58% reported that the safety debate had been building internally even as both companies celebrated recent technical milestones, including an AI model that solved one of the Millennium Prize mathematical problems.wsj+1

Market Fallout

Asian stocks and US equity futures retreated Monday as investors weighed the implications of a deliberate slowdown in the industry that has powered much of the market's gains. Shares of SoftBank, one of OpenAI's largest backers, slid more than 10% in Tokyo trading. The sell-off rippled across the technology sector, underscoring how dependent recent market valuations have been on expectations of rapid AI progress.bloomberg

Trump Pushes Back

President Trump dismissed the safety warnings on Sunday, telling reporters that "very negative forces" are "bringing up things that won't happen." He framed the debate in geopolitical terms: "We're leading China in AI. We're the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI wins," Reuters reported.finance.yahoo

The tension between the industry's own safety concerns and Washington's competitive ambitions now looms over both companies' planned public offerings, with Altman confirming OpenAI's IPO is delayed and Anthropic's listing still expected this fall.bloomberg+1