The contradictions at the heart of the AI industry were laid bare this week as Anthropic, the safety-focused startup, advocated for a pause in artificial intelligence advancement – days after filing to go public on the US stock market. The call came as Donald Trump signalled he would prioritise growth over restraint, discussing financial stakes in the very companies that critics say are concentrating power and wealth.
Trump told reporters on Friday that his administration would “look into” taking equity positions in leading AI firms, with Sam Altman of OpenAI reportedly participating in discussions with senior White House officials. “There’s something very interesting about it, where it almost becomes a partnership with the American public,” Trump said.
“Anthropic calls for AI pause days after IPO, as Trump eyes stakes and Sanders proposes sovereign wealth fund.”
The president’s remarks follow two executive orders issued last week. One sought – but did not mandate – a government review of AI models 30 days before release; Trump had delayed signing it in late May, telling reporters: “We’re leading China, we’re leading everybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s gonna get in the way of that lead.” The other order directed the defence department to accelerate AI adoption, particularly for national cybersecurity.
The approach stands in stark contrast to a proposal from US senator Bernie Sanders. Writing in the New York Times, Sanders asked: “Will the future of humanity be determined by a handful of billionaires who have promoted and developed AI, with virtually no democratic input, who stand to become even richer and more powerful than they are today?” He advocated creating a US sovereign wealth fund by taking 50% stock in AI companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI, arguing it would give the public democratic control and return trillions of dollars to society.
Two commentators, Nathan E Sanders and Bruce Schneier, agreed with the senator’s diagnosis – that the most urgent risk is the concentration of power among tech oligarchs – but proposed an alternative. “Energy taxation is a straightforward way to make AI companies pay for the social disruption of their technologies,” they wrote, suggesting it would achieve the same goal without the government taking equity. Their book, Rewiring Democracy, surveys the impacts of AI on global democracy.
Anthropic’s contradictory posture – urging a slowdown while pursuing a public listing – underscores the tension between safety rhetoric and market pressures. Whether Trump, Sanders, or the energy tax advocates gain influence remains to be seen, but the question of who controls AI now dominates Washington.