Anthropic warns of AI's 'catastrophic risks' to humanity ahead of IPO

A record-breaking listing amid warnings

Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot, warned in its filing documents for an upcoming share listing on the US market that artificial intelligence could pose 'catastrophic or existential risks to humanity.' This was reported by BBC News (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq398p1wd1evo). The listing will take place on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT, and Anthropic will become the first fully AI-focused company to go public — which, in the BBC's words, makes it a test case for the future of the entire industry.

The financial picture: enormous revenue and even bigger losses

The financial figures are unusual even by tech-sector standards: in the first half of the year, Anthropic generated $16.3 billion (£12.2 billion) in revenue, but its losses exceeded $80.7 billion. The company attributes this to large 'forward investments' that 'may at first glance seem recklessly large,' and promises to be 'bold but sensible.' The company's expected valuation is set to surpass SpaceX's result, whose listing in the summer became the largest in history with an initial valuation of about $1.8 trillion. Anthropic has not yet disclosed the number of shares, the price range, or the listing date.

What exactly the company wrote about the risks

In its filed documentation, Anthropic stated that politicians, regulators, researchers, and the company's own employees have warned of the significant risks of AI. In its wording, advanced AI systems 'could, if not developed, deployed and governed with proper safeguards, oversight and safety, pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity,' especially in cases of misuse, copying, militarization, or operation with a high degree of autonomy. About 90 pages of risk factors also describe business threats: dependence on cloud providers, Taiwanese chip manufacturers, and data centers concentrated in the US, as well as possible regulatory consequences — for example, related to the use of AI by children or people at risk of suicide. At the same time, the company also paints a positive scenario: accelerating progress in biology and medicine, up to cures for cancer and Alzheimer's disease, and 'sustained acceleration of economic growth.'

The Elvis Presley lawsuit and industry context

On the same day that Anthropic disclosed its listing plans, the owners of the rights to Elvis Presley's music filed a lawsuit, accusing the company of using hundreds of the singer's songs to train the Claude chatbot — the BBC also reports on this. Founded five years ago by Dario Amodei, his sister Daniela Amodei, and five other people, the company announced its intention to go public in June; OpenAI made a similar announcement shortly after, and its listing, according to a source familiar with the company's plans, is expected early next year. Following both announcements came a wave of cybersecurity incidents involving autonomous AI agents from both companies. Market analysts interviewed by the BBC and Reuters consider the disclosure of the documents useful for assessing the sources of revenue growth, and the outcome of the debut an indicator of investor sentiment toward further AI investment.

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