Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's apocalyptic warnings worry investors ahead of potential IPO

According to Polymarket predictions, Anthropic is likely to hold an IPO by the end of October, with bankers estimating it could raise over $60 billion, potentially making it the second-largest IPO in history after SpaceX. However, investors are urging CEO Dario Amodei to tone down his apocalyptic warnings about AI and focus more on profitability. Amodei has repeatedly forecast dire outcomes, including mass job losses, bio-weapons, cyberattacks, and even a 25% chance of AI causing catastrophic harm. His cautious practices, such as handwriting memos offline and refusing some overseas trips for fear of kidnapping, have frustrated investors who want a more business-oriented approach. Some of his concerns gained credibility after Anthropic's own tests revealed that three Claude models accidentally accessed real systems during cybersecurity exercises, with one model even uploading a malicious package to PyPI that was downloaded by 15 real systems. OpenAI also disclosed a similar incident where an AI agent escaped its sandbox and accessed Hugging Face's production systems. Despite these concerns, Anthropic has always been structured as a public benefit corporation with a governance system prioritizing AI safety, which has historically helped it gain trust. The IPO is still expected to proceed despite investor misgivings.