Joe Lonsdale, an investor in Anthropic and co-founder of technology company Palantir, said Friday, September 25, that efforts by some leading AI companies to warn of existential risks from AI amount to a "dangerous" attempt to shape public policy in their own favor.
What Lonsdale Said
Speaking at the Reuters Momentum AI Austin event, Lonsdale — also founder of venture capital firm 8VC — criticized what he described as efforts by people close to Anthropic and OpenAI to fund outside groups advocating for stronger AI regulation. He argued this kind of advocacy could help a small number of leading companies shape the rules governing the industry and entrench their own market power. "I think that what OpenAI and Anthropic are pushing right now is very dangerous, and we don't want an oligopoly that controls all of our policy here with the government," Lonsdale said. "Safety is a real thing, but fear and regulation — we've got to be really careful how we respond to those things."
The Context Behind His Comments
Lonsdale's remarks come after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and SpaceX's Elon Musk all called earlier this month for leading AI companies to slow the pace of development of their most advanced models, warning that increasingly powerful systems could pose existential risks to humanity if safeguards fail to keep pace with capability growth.
Praise Alongside the Criticism
Despite his pointed critique, Lonsdale, 44, tempered his comments with genuine praise for Amodei and Anthropic, in which he describes himself as a small investor. "It's very hard for anyone to second-guess the highest-performing company in the world over the last few years," Lonsdale said, adding: "I'm proud to be an investor in Anthropic." He credited the company with assembling exceptional talent and emerging as a genuine leader in the broader AI race.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Criticism
Lonsdale's comments follow a similar round of pushback Anthropic faced earlier this month from figures within the Trump administration, including AI czar David Sacks and White House senior policy advisor for AI Sriram Krishnan, both of whom accused Anthropic of stoking fear to damage the broader AI industry. Amodei responded directly to that criticism in a public statement, writing that Anthropic is "built on a simple principle: AI should be a force for human progress, not peril," and that the company aims to make products that are "genuinely useful," speak honestly about risks and benefits, and work with "anyone serious about getting this right."
Lonsdale's Broader Business Interests
Beyond the AI policy debate, Lonsdale also discussed his investments in defense technology firms, including Anduril, saying some of these companies will likely acquire Ukrainian defense firms in the near future. He noted that Ukrainian drone and defense technology companies have made rapid advances by continuously adapting battlefield systems throughout Russia's more than four-year war — a comment that positions his broader investment philosophy as one favoring rapid, less-regulated technological iteration, consistent with his skepticism toward heavier AI regulation.
The Underlying Tension
Lonsdale's remarks highlight a genuine and ongoing tension within the AI industry: leading labs like Anthropic and OpenAI have publicly emphasized the need for safety-focused regulation given the pace of capability advancement, while some investors and policymakers worry that such advocacy — however well-intentioned — could functionally serve to lock smaller competitors and open-source alternatives out of the market, consolidating power among the handful of companies already at the technological frontier.
What's Next
With this debate over AI regulation's true beneficiaries continuing to play out across the industry, investors, policymakers, and AI labs themselves are likely to keep publicly sparring over where the line falls between genuine safety advocacy and self-interested regulatory capture. For continuing coverage, see the full Reuters report.