SOC Investment Group urges Anthropic to delay $2 trillion IPO over safety concerns

Investing.com -- A labor-affiliated shareholder group has called on Anthropic to delay its planned initial public offering, joining growing demands for the artificial intelligence company to slow down amid mounting safety concerns.

SOC Investment Group works directly with union-sponsored pension funds and is known for pressing companies through shareholder proposals, though typically while holding only small stakes.

It said on Tuesday that Anthropic should postpone its offering until the rules governing how AI is developed and deployed become clearer.

The call follows recent warnings from AI leaders, including Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei, that the technology is outpacing safety regulation.

"As AI leaders are raising alarms about the pace of development, Anthropic should delay its IPO," said SOCIG Research Director Richard Clayton. "Just as they say there are risks on the technology side, there are also too many unknown risks to investors right now."

Clayton noted that Anthropic submitted its confidential registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission in June, before reports of “multiple hacking incidents, concerns over existential threats and the newly proposed public-private regulatory initiative“ emerged.

He argued that the industry's push to "pace" AI development changes so much about Anthropic's business that investors could not properly weigh the risks in the meantime.

The call comes as Anthropic is said to be pressing ahead with the listing, with reports stating it has selected Nasdaq as its venue.

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