In a column for Crypto Briefing, Dario Amodei argues that artificial intelligence development must slow down to accommodate rigorous safety testing. “should go through mandatory safety testing,” Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei said in a blog post, according to Crypto Briefing reporting.
That warning has exposed deep fractures among major artificial intelligence leaders. While companies like Nvidia and Microsoft view rapid expansion as a prime business opportunity, according to The New York Times, Anthropic has taken an increasingly uncompromising stance on safety.
Friction intensified after Amodei published his September 12 essay calling for regulatory restraint. Within weeks, industry heavyweights organized a pushback campaign to counter his doomsday rhetoric.
Executives argue for open-weights models and criticize Anthropic
At the end of July, Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella and Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang circulated a draft letter arguing that open-weights artificial intelligence models should remain widely available, The New York Times reported. Two dozen companies signed immediately before the letter went public.
Huang later criticized Amodei directly. Huang said of Amodei and Anthropic that “He believes that A.I. is so scary that only they should do it.”
Other executives joined the counter-offensive. Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz met with Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown over the summer to complain that Amodei’s public predictions of white-collar job losses were unnecessarily terrifying the public, according to The New York Times.
The core part of this Anthropic Fable release saga is that there are many overlapping issues at once. Some of which operate on different timelines of the AI arc, and some have easier fixes. In my critiques, I asked for specific changes to some things, understanding that some…
Anthropic Builds Hardball Reputation
As Anthropic surged ahead with its Claude Code tool—on track to reach $2.5 billion in annual revenue—critics accused the company of adopting aggressive business practices. In April 2025, after negotiations between startup Windsurf and OpenAI became public, Anthropic cut off Windsurf’s direct model access.
“I think it would be odd for us to be selling Claude to OpenAI,” said Jared Kaplan, one of Anthropic’s founders and its chief science officer, in a June interview reported by The New York Times.
Technology executives debate safety principles at the White House
Tensions culminated at a White House event on September 29, 2026, where at least 24 technology executives signed voluntary safety principles. Yet behind closed doors, executives from Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and OpenAI debated how to present a united front against Anthropic’s messaging.
Despite the pushback, Amodei’s safety agenda continues to influence public debate.
Nevertheless, Amodei appeared to soften his rhetoric during a subsequent White House lunch with President Trump and more than 30 executives, where he said that the United States must build artificial intelligence with maximum speed to win the global race, according to The New York Times.
Why Amodei left OpenAI and the rift with Nvidia
Why did Dario Amodei leave OpenAI?
In 2020, Amodei and a group of employees left OpenAI due to fundamental disagreements over how to safely develop artificial intelligence technology.
What caused the rift between Anthropic and Nvidia?
Nvidia executives opposed Amodei’s support for strict U.S. trade restrictions on chip sales to China and his calls to slow down artificial intelligence development.
How did other tech companies respond to Anthropic’s safety lobbying?
Leaders like Satya Nadella and Jensen Huang organized a letter signed by hundreds of companies supporting open-weights models to counter Anthropic’s regulatory push.
Keep reading