Markets and Trump Reject AI Leaders' Call to Slow Development

Markets and Trump Reject AI Leaders' Call to Slow Development

On the Monday after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published his essay "We Must Pace the Frontier," AI stocks fell sharply – Nvidia down around 3 percent, Intel down 6 percent – and President Trump dismissed the safety warnings as a "hoax." The call for voluntary restraint thus met immediate financial and political resistance, while analysts still consider a real pause unlikely.

What the essay actually proposed

Amodei published the essay "We Must Pace the Frontier" on Saturday, September 12, 2026, calling for an industry-wide effort to slow the development of AI. According to the Los Angeles Times (fa68dd2c), his proposals included independent third-party monitors to ensure that AI is developed safely. "Anthropic is unilaterally committing to this step now," Amodei said, according to the newspaper – meaning Anthropic is binding itself to such oversight without waiting for the others.

The essay itself is not available here as a primary source, so the account of its contents beyond third-party monitoring rests on secondary coverage.

The market punished hardware companies immediately

On Monday, September 14, stocks across the AI supply chain fell. According to The Guardian (86fb5e6a), Nvidia – the world's most valuable company – closed down 3.3 percent, AMD fell 4 percent, while Micron Technology and Sandisk fell 5 percent, and SoftBank fell 13 percent. The Los Angeles Times gives somewhat different figures: Nvidia down 3 percent to $210.96, Intel down 6 percent and SoftBank down 11 percent (fa68dd2c). The exact closing figures should therefore be treated with caution – the direction is unambiguous, the precision is not.

The same source writes, citing an Altman interview with Fortune, that OpenAI may, according to Altman, postpone IPO plans. He called the current moment for a stock market listing an "ill-advised moment." That is a statement attributed to Altman via Fortune, not a confirmed decision by the company.

Trump: "Hoax Buster"

Trump responded on Monday with a series of posts on Truth Social, reproduced by CNBC (cd647977): "We already have tremendous CRIMINal and REGULATORY power over these companies!" and "There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China." He called himself the "Hoax Buster" and specifically went after Amodei.

Later that day, Trump called Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang while Huang was on stage at the All-In Summit, on speakerphone, according to The Verge's report from the event (a522ba71). During the call, the president called the latest fears about AI development a "hoax" and told the audience that "the robots will not be taking over."

An industry divided – and a demand for regulation

The call drew support from several of the industry's biggest names: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk all posted support for the essay, The Guardian reports (86fb5e6a). Altman said, according to the same coverage, that he would contribute his own external evaluators, in line with Amodei's commitment.

Monday also brought a demand for regulation that was not voluntary. Utah Governor Spencer Cox urged Congress, according to the Deseret News (7a8f4bf0), to establish a "federal framework" requiring organizations that develop powerful AI tools to report "serious safety incidents," protect those who raise "credible safety concerns," evaluate systems throughout the development process, and ban sales of "powerful AI chips and other enabling infrastructure" to China. According to Cox, the framework should function as a national floor – not a ceiling – without stripping states of broader authority.

The background to the pile-up of warnings is partly unclear, but CNBC writes (cd647977) that former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned from his position a few days earlier, warning that the technology could "kill us all by the end of the decade," with accusations that both OpenAI and Anthropic are "gambling with our lives."

A real pause is unlikely

Analysts nonetheless do not believe the call will lead to significant slowing. According to the Los Angeles Times (fa68dd2c), a pause would delay training of the next model generation, while existing models could continue serving customers. "There's not going to be a material slowdown," Joey Brookhart at SemiAnalysis told the newspaper.

That leaves the open questions: In a single day, Amodei got a market selloff, presidential mockery and a governor's demand for regulation. What the essay actually leads to – beyond Anthropic's own commitment and Altman's promised evaluators – remains unresolved for now.