Prominent Investors Call AI Doomsday Warnings Self-Serving Ahead of Anthropic and OpenAI IPOs

Investors Challenge AI Apocalypse Warnings as IPO Protection Strategy

Michael Burry, the investor who predicted the 2008 housing crisis, has called AI doomsday warnings from industry leaders a self-serving IPO strategy designed to protect faltering bottom lines1

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Following former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon's viral September 8 warning about AI safety concerns, prominent AI executives including Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk called for slowing AI development1

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. Burry described these warnings as "hype and puffery" on his Substack, arguing they serve as cover for real uncontrollable slowing growth as anticipated IPOs approach1

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. Steve Eisman echoed this skepticism, stating AI executives are faking a doomsday crisis to protect their businesses, noting that neither Anthropic nor OpenAI can afford to slow down given their hundreds of billions of dollars in commitments to hyperscalers2

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Financial Pressures Behind the AI Safety Rhetoric

Both Anthropic and OpenAI face significant financial pressures that undermine their public calls for slowing AI development. OpenAI grossed $13 billion in revenue but lost $34 billion in 2025, according to leaked documents, prompting CEO Sam Altman to push back the company's public offering until 2027, telling Fortune that "right now would be an ill-advised time"1

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. Anthropic employs adjusted operating income metrics that remove non-recurring costs, a financial reporting technique unapproved by Generally Accepted Accounting Practices, raising questions about the company's reported 80 percent margin growth over two consecutive quarters1

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. Despite these concerns, Anthropic's annualized revenue run rate grew to about $65 billion by the end of July, up from about $9 billion at the end of 2025, with projections reaching $190 billion to $200 billion in revenue for 20283

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Anthropic Weighs New Model Release Despite Safety Calls

In a move that highlights the contradiction between public statements and competitive reality, Anthropic is considering rolling out a new AI model to counter OpenAI's momentum just days after Dario Amodei urged the industry to slow down3

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. The potential timing comes ahead of Anthropic's expected IPO and creates what sources describe as a genuinely awkward moment for the company3

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. Eisman argued that AI labs are encouraging AI regulation that would protect their pricing power by making it harder for new rivals to compete, while expecting increasingly capable open-weight models to drive a price war2

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. The competitive pressure extends beyond OpenAI, as Meta, one of Anthropic's largest customers, is looking to reduce its use of Anthropic models as it builds more AI capabilities internally2

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OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra Gains Enterprise Traction

OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra on September 3, touting gains in computer use, software engineering, cybersecurity, and general professional work3

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. The model accounted for roughly 13% of enterprise AI spending tracked by corporate expense platform Ramp, compared with roughly 8% for Anthropic's Claude3

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. GPT-6 Astra helped OpenAI claim the top spot on OpenRouter for the first time in more than two and a half years, marking a significant shift in market share3

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. Despite this competitive pressure, existing investors planning to invest in both companies' IPOs said they do not believe Astra poses a significant near-term risk, citing the size of Anthropic's lead in enterprise adoption and the time it typically takes to unseat an incumbent vendor at large companies3

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Industry Voices Challenge Doomsday Narrative

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who now runs venture firm Seven Seven Six, told CNBC that the industry has done a "pretty tone deaf job" of explaining AI to the public, arguing the risks are "more benign, or they're more banal than people are thinking"4

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. He pointed to agent swarms and practical business impacts rather than Terminator scenarios, calling the doomer rhetoric "discouraging" and "frustrating"4

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. President Donald Trump called AI safety concerns "a hoax" at a conference, dismissing regulatory proposals and signaling a light-touch federal regulatory environment5

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. This regulatory stance creates a paradox: both Anthropic and OpenAI advocate for AI regulation that theoretically raises compliance costs, yet they're pricing their anticipated IPOs as if regulation won't touch their economics at all5

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. Polymarket traders give Anthropic a 78% chance of going public by December 31, in a market with about $3.7 million in volume, though Reuters reported the company may wait until after November's U.S. midterm elections to list2

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