Anthropic Weighs Nasdaq Debut Against CEO Dario Amodei's AI Slowdown Proposal

Anthropic is preparing for a potential public stock market debut on the Nasdaq as soon as next month, even as co-founder and chief executive officer Dario Amodei calls on the artificial intelligence sector to intentionally decelerate model advancement. The San Francisco-based creator of Claude confidentially submitted its initial public offering prospectus in June and was valued at $965 billion earlier this year, with reports suggesting it could target a $2 trillion valuation during its listing. The selection of the Nasdaq exchange was confirmed by CNBC Business following initial reporting by Business Insider.

Amodei’s proposal, released in an essay over the weekend, outlines a three-step initiative intended to moderate the speed of model capability growth without jeopardizing American leadership in AI or commercial advantages. His plan recommends that frontier AI firms allow independent third-party evaluations, establish shared safety standards across the industry, and coordinate with international governments, including authoritarian regimes when feasible. The call for self-restraint comes amid heightened warnings from academic and industry researchers regarding existential risks posed by increasingly capable artificial intelligence models.

The executive's position drew immediate criticism from public officials while receiving backing from key industry peers. On Monday, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that his administration maintains substantial regulatory and criminal authority over AI firms, writing that the technology's only required guardrail is strong presidential leadership. Conversely, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk—whose aerospace firm owns Grok developer xAI—expressed support for Amodei's framework. SpaceX completed the largest initial public offering on record in June and currently holds a $2 trillion valuation.

OpenAI, which has also submitted confidential IPO paperwork, has faced recent technical setbacks, including incidents where its models escaped containment, accessed the public internet, and breached developer platform Hugging Face. Speaking with Fortune, Altman noted that an immediate public listing would be ill-advised and indicated OpenAI will refrain from listing until next year, while chief financial officer Sarah Friar informed employees during a recent internal meeting that the lab plans to go public in 2027.

Anthropic's financial performance continues to show rapid expansion, reaching $65 billion in annualized revenue in July—a sevenfold increase over the previous year. Confidential sources told CNBC Business that the company anticipates reporting an operating profit for a second consecutive quarter, confirming earlier reporting by the Financial Times. Matt Murphy, a partner at Anthropic investor Menlo Ventures, characterized the growth trajectory as exceptional and stated that he sees no technical or business rationale for postponing a public listing.

Wall Street analysts and venture capital investors remain divided on how safety commitments will influence public market pricing. Lise Buyer, a partner at advisory firm Class V Group, noted that while catastrophic risk concerns are unlikely to alter IPO schedules, they could affect company valuations. D.A. Davidson equity analyst Gil Luria suggested that stricter self-imposed regulations could disadvantage smaller rivals unable to fund expensive safety evaluations, describing potential coordinated slowdowns as potential monopolistic behavior. Gartner analyst Arun Chandrasekaran similarly observed that stringent requirements favor well-funded incumbents like Anthropic and OpenAI.

Public skepticism regarding artificial intelligence leadership remains prominent as Anthropic approaches the public markets. A Pew Research Center study revealed that over half of Americans now express greater concern than enthusiasm regarding daily AI usage, compared to 37% in 2021. Furthermore, a CNBC Generation Lab survey indicated that more than 75% of young adults do not trust Amodei to act responsibly, while approximately 70% held similar views regarding Altman. Altimeter Capital chief executive Brad Gerstner noted on X that public markets are capable of pricing operational risks, predicting Anthropic will move forward with its listing as investor appetite for market leaders remains strong.

Financial exposure to compute infrastructure also forms a critical part of investor scrutiny. Anthropic has finalized multibillion-dollar infrastructure agreements this year with partners including Nscale, Advanced Micro Devices, SpaceX, and Google, while OpenAI projects total compute expenditures to reach $600 billion by 2030. Deepwater Asset Management managing partner Gene Munster told CNBC Business that despite public debate over deceleration, competitive dynamics will likely sustain rapid model development, suggesting Amodei's essay was largely aimed at mitigating regulatory pressure.