Anthropic Sets Out Nasdaq Listing and Warns of AI Risks
Anthropic has told investors that artificial intelligence could pose "catastrophic or existential risks to humanity", as it published details of its planned stock market listing in the US. The company said it will list on the Nasdaq under the symbol ANT.
It has not yet disclosed how many shares it will release, their price range or a date. Its valuation is expected to exceed that of SpaceX, whose listing in the summer, at an initial valuation of about $1.8 trillion, was the biggest ever. Anthropic would be the first company focused entirely on AI to go public.
Revenue and losses
The developer of the Claude chatbot reported $16.3bn (£12.2bn) of revenue in the first half of the year. Losses were more than $80.7bn, exceeding that revenue. The company said it would often make forward investments "that may seem irresponsibly large at first glance". Its stated approach: "In general, we will aim to be bold but sane, and to win trust with a track record of successful bets."
Anthropic added that its success depends largely on its ability to develop the most advanced AI models, and that any failure to do so "could adversely affect our business".
What the filing warns about
Across about 90 pages of risk factors, the company pointed to its reliance on a cluster of cloud computing providers, on Taiwanese chipmakers already facing huge demand, and on data centres concentrated in the US. It also cited possible "regulatory action arising from harms associated with our AI models", including concerns over use by children or people at risk of suicide, and uncertainty over where and how it could be held liable for what its systems do.
The filing said policymakers, regulators, researchers and people inside the organisation have raised concerns that AI systems pose a significant risk to humanity. Such systems could, it said, pose catastrophic risks "if such systems were misused, replicated, weaponised, or allowed to operate with a high degree of autonomy".
The same document praised the technology. Anthropic described AI as "one of the most consequential technologies in human history", said it could "profoundly accelerate the rate of progress in biology and medicine", and suggested it might help find cures for diseases including cancer and Alzheimer's.
Rivals and legal action
Anthropic was founded five years ago by chief executive Dario Amodei, his sister Daniela Amodei and five others, and announced its intention to go public in June. Rival OpenAI quickly followed, and its listing is now expected early next year, according to a person familiar with its plans.
On the day of the filing, the owners of the rights to Elvis Presley's music sued Anthropic, accusing it of using hundreds of his songs to train Claude.
Matt Orton, chief market strategist at Raymond James Investment, said investors expected rapid growth alongside rapid losses, so the filing would not come as a surprise. Peter Andersen, founder of Andersen Capital Management, told Reuters the outcome of the debut would be "fairly indicative of the sentiment" among investors about continuing to put money into AI development.
Source: BBC News