“No, because I don't think Oppenheimer went public.”
Big Technology · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · October 2026
Context
Kantrowitz had just read out the S-1 risk factor warning that advanced AI could pose "catastrophic or existential risks to humanity," and asked whether any S-1 in history had contained a sentence like it. Primack adds that Anthropic isn't really trying to resolve the tension before listing, and probably can't.
Transcript
…by the way, I love when you read it, and I'm going to paraphrase this, but it's kind of like, you know, that's that's a concern internally and externally. We could end humanity as we know it, which could impact our financial performance. Yeah, no shit. That could impact your financial performance.
…and security measures, pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity, particularly if such systems were misused, replicated, weaponized, or allowed to operate with a high degree of autonomy. Dan, in the history of financial reporting, has there ever been a sentence like that in an S1?
No, because I don't think Oppenheimer went public. So no, I don't know. No, no, no, nothing like nothing like this. And there was a lot, I will say, there's been a lot of commentary over the last, what it's been, two months since the Coxon thing came out about, well, you know, they're going to have to resolve this issue before they go. Is that possible? Well, whether possible or not, clearly not. They're not even really trying to. And that's not even a knock on them. I don't think they can. But no, this is going to be in there. And again, whether you invest in the IPO or whether you are invested in the IPO or not is not going to impact or change the fact that Anthropic could or could not destroy the world, which will, again, render the rest of your portfolio meaningless.
How does Anthropic's performance here trickle to OpenAI?
I mean, if at all. I mean, it will, right? Because it's the most direct comp. I mean, SpaceX is kind of a comp, and depending on how you want to suss out the meta piece of it, but I mean, this is the most direct one-to-one, right? These are essentially the same company. Again, SpaceX has Starlink…
two. Okay. You closed your newsletter with plenty of companies flip their S1s and then get cold feet. Anthropic can't afford to be one of them in terms of both its balance sheet and its reputation. Just elaborate on that.
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