NYC Comptroller Mark Levine urges AI lab Anthropic to pause US IPO

New York City Comptroller Mark Levine just stepped into the path of one of the biggest tech listings on the horizon. He sent a sharp letter to Dario Amodei, the chief executive officer of Anthropic, urging the artificial intelligence lab to delay its United States initial public offering. Anthropic is the maker of advanced AI systems that compete directly with ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company is reportedly targeting an eye-watering $2 trillion valuation for the stock listing. But the money is running ahead of the rules, according to the city's financial watchdog. AI systems have advanced rapidly over the past 12 months, outpacing regulation and drawing fierce scrutiny over safety, cybersecurity threats, and misuse. NYC public pension funds have a combined $7 million in exposure to Anthropic through private equity holdings. Those pension funds hold over $325 billion in total assets managed by the comptroller's office. Anthropic's own research highlights the risks posed by increasingly autonomous models, which have demonstrated potentially harmful capabilities in controlled tests like sabotaging code, facilitating fraud, and manipulating information. "Instead of proceeding headlong with its IPO, the company should focus its energies on addressing these unprecedented risks," Mark Levine wrote in the letter. Earlier this week in a pre-IPO meeting, Anthropic told prospective investors that revenue in the third quarter surged 45% from the prior quarter. Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the comptroller's demand. If you are watching tech stocks, keep an eye on how these safety demands slow down Wall Street's rush into artificial intelligence. Sometimes the biggest risk in your portfolio is the one nobody checked twice.