Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has opened discussions with New York City Comptroller Mark Levine after he urged the AI company to delay its potential November IPO until it strengthens AI safety and government safeguards.

In an Oct. 14 letter, Levine cited warnings in Anthropic’s draft IPO filing about potentially catastrophic AI risks, roughly 80 pages of disclosures, and concerns that its proposed governance structure could limit shareholder accountability. 

Levine revealed on Bloomberg TV that a line of communication has been opened with Amodei following the letter, but did not reveal further details regarding the discussions.

"It does appear they are under pressure from multiple sides right now," Levine said.

Levine oversees New York City’s public pension funds, which have more than $325 billion in assets. He told Bloomberg that some city pension assets are held in index funds and that they could add Anthropic to their portfolios once it goes public.

He also warned of the effects a potential cybersecurity breach could have on the stock should something occur.

"If they go public and then there is a catastrophic safety incident, beyond, far beyond what we’ve seen right now, that would be terrible for their stock," Levine said.

While Levine doesn’t have the authority to stop a company from going public, he noted that New York City is one of the largest pension funds in the world, and they are teaming up with other "like-minded public pension investors," he said.

"I think we do have influence and I hope we are heard," Levine said, adding that he is unsure if the Claude-maker will decide to delay the IPO.

Anthropic has not formally announced its IPO date, although sources previously said the Claude-maker plans to go public sometime in mid-November. Discussions are still underway, and the timing could change again, sources noted. 

Levine also revealed that he has been in touch with OpenAI informally and has also been holding conversations with the London Stock Exchange and other institutional investors regarding safety concerns.

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