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Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic files papers to sell shares to the public for the first time

Gary Lloyd | Oct 26,26 | 01:44 EST

Technology

Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic filed papers Monday for what could be the biggest initial public offering of stock ever, even as its top executive warns that advanced AI could pose an existential threat to humanity. The filing sets up the San Francisco company for a Wall Street debut next month, potentially eclipsing the SpaceX initial public offering in June that raised a record $86 billion. An Anthropic IPO would also put the company ahead of OpenAI in going public, in what is expected to be a pair of blockbuster stock debuts for the rival AI labs.

Risks aplenty, but a big payoff to the founders In the filing, the company said it could use some of that money on acquiring other businesses and technology as well as investing in infrastructure to grow its business to take on rivals. Formed in 2021 by ex-OpenAI leaders, Anthropic is locked in a fight for dominance with that company and the two leaders, Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, are widely seen as bitter rivals. But they have plenty of other competitors, including Google, newer startups in the U.S. and China and Musk’s SpaceX, which has an AI business. Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX’s AI division have all been losing more money than they make because of the huge costs in resources in building AI, fueling concerns of a bubble. The IPO would help cover any cash shortfall as well as shower extraordinary wealth on Anthropic’s seven founders, including Amodei and his sister and co-founder, Daniela. Collectively they own nearly 500 million shares, though it's unclear from the offering document how much that will represent of the company after the IPO. The filing also listed a host of risks for the San Francisco-based Anthropic, ranging from not being able to retain key staff, navigate regulatory roadblocks and secure enough compute power to run its AI systems. But the standout was that its AI models could “pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity.” Calls for an AI slowdown The IPO comes as worries about AI grow inside and outside the industry and reports continue to emerge about increasingly powerful systems that solve problems beyond human capacity but could also go rogue and carry out other, more harmful tasks. In September, Amodei said the AI industry should slow its fast-moving development to give safety measures time to catch up. Without such a slowdown, Amodei warned AI could be capable of letting loose a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet within six to 12 months. He offered a plan in a post on his website to increase checks on the industry, noting that Anthropic is already undertaking part of this on its own. As for other steps, though, he said that would require coordination across the industry and with governments around the world, including authoritarian ones. “I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we used that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong,” Amodei wrote.

Risks aplenty, but a big payoff to the founders

In the filing, the company said it could use some of that money on acquiring other businesses and technology as well as investing in infrastructure to grow its business to take on rivals. Formed in 2021 by ex-OpenAI leaders, Anthropic is locked in a fight for dominance with that company and the two leaders, Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, are widely seen as bitter rivals. But they have plenty of other competitors, including Google, newer startups in the U.S. and China and Musk’s SpaceX, which has an AI business. Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX’s AI division have all been losing more money than they make because of the huge costs in resources in building AI, fueling concerns of a bubble. The IPO would help cover any cash shortfall as well as shower extraordinary wealth on Anthropic’s seven founders, including Amodei and his sister and co-founder, Daniela. Collectively they own nearly 500 million shares, though it's unclear from the offering document how much that will represent of the company after the IPO. The filing also listed a host of risks for the San Francisco-based Anthropic, ranging from not being able to retain key staff, navigate regulatory roadblocks and secure enough compute power to run its AI systems. But the standout was that its AI models could “pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity.”

Calls for an AI slowdown

The IPO comes as worries about AI grow inside and outside the industry and reports continue to emerge about increasingly powerful systems that solve problems beyond human capacity but could also go rogue and carry out other, more harmful tasks. In September, Amodei said the AI industry should slow its fast-moving development to give safety measures time to catch up. Without such a slowdown, Amodei warned AI could be capable of letting loose a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet within six to 12 months. He offered a plan in a post on his website to increase checks on the industry, noting that Anthropic is already undertaking part of this on its own. As for other steps, though, he said that would require coordination across the industry and with governments around the world, including authoritarian ones. “I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we used that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong,” Amodei wrote.