11AM Hour: AI Safety Concerns in Focus, Oil Prices on the Rise & Apple and OpenAI Head to Court 9/14/26

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

When did work become so much work? The meeting about the meeting, the hundreds of files to find one insight, setting aside the things you want to do for the things that pop up. Your workday's gone.

But what if the insight surfaced itself? Or you could ship the deck without the distractions. Gemini Enterprise helps you get that done. It's AI that knows your business with agents that take stuff off your plate. Make work less work with Gemini Enterprise from Google Cloud.

SPEAKER_2 (0:30)

Introducing Fidelity Trader Plus. With customizable tools and charts, you can access across all your devices. Try our most powerful trading platform yet at fidelity.com/traderplus. Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Fidelity Broker Services, LLC. Member NYSE, SIPC.

Sara Eisen (0:51)

Good Monday morning again. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Sara Eisen with Carl Quintanilla, live from Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Today, AI leaders calling for a timeout with the CEOs of Anthropic, OpenAI, and XAI, warning the technology is moving too fast. We're joined by one top analyst who says, come in government regulation, maybe the industry's best chance at long-term success.

Carl Quintanilla (1:12)

We'll talk to one former Meta and Google executive about the new calls to tap the AI breaks and why he thinks the real reason might actually be to rein in spending.

Sara Eisen (1:21)

As oil prices jumped to near four-month highs, we are joined by an energy and geopolitical expert who says, it's clear the market isn't satisfied with US efforts to increase volumes through the Strait of Hormuz.

Carl Quintanilla (1:32)

Meantime markets back to session lows are awfully close here. S&P is back below 7,600. There's the 10-year, which did hit five for the first time since 2023

Strengths today in some communication services, energy, health care, and staples, but we're going to begin on the AI developments. RK Rooney joins us with what we heard over the weekend from Anthropic CEO and how others have responded. Leslie Picker has a look at how these safety concerns are impacting the AI IPO pipeline. But we'll start with you, Kate. Good morning.

Kate Rooney (2:01)

Hey, Carl. Good morning. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei shocked the tech world with this essay on Saturday. The CEO proposed a three-step plan aimed at really tempering how fast the most powerful AI models are going to be improving. It does include a situation where you'd have third-party evaluators. He talks about safety standards and then international coordination as part of this. Amodei has argued for safety in the past, but all of this is taking on a new urgency. He talks about that urgency given some of the recent panic around the risk of this technology. It all snowballed last week. We talked a lot about this after Anthropic researchers tweeted about the existential risk, and then talked about AI labs, quote, gambling with our lives. The two new concerns that Amodei flags, he talks about AI developing a lot faster than expected, and then examples, and one example in particular of OpenAI agents hacking into the startup hugging face, he called those AI agents a fanatically devoted collective. Major AI leaders, this was maybe the most shocking part. They agreed with Amodei. You don't see that every day. Elon Musk chiming in saying, Dario is right, Sam Altman, CEO of Anthropic's biggest rival, OpenAI, tweeting his support as well. I did speak to dozens of people over the weekend who argued that the safety push could actually help Anthropic's IPO at the end of the day, positioning the company as more responsible player and then reducing some of the regulatory and potential liability risk. Multiple investors told me the growth rate for Anthropic is still off the charts as they described it. They do expect this IPO to go forward. Also confirmed with two sources that Anthropic has seen back-to-back quarters now of adjusted profitability. A new wrinkle though, guys, in all of this. President Trump just slamming Dario Amodei, saying that the only guard rails that AI needs is a strong and smart president. In part, he also says there is a sick conspiracy going on against AI and data centers. The only one that is happy about that, he says, is China.

Sara Eisen (4:00)

Yeah, that's complicated. Thank you, Kate. Stay with us. Let's get to Leslie Picker with the impact to IPOs, Leslie, as we hear about different paths now for Anthropic and OpenAI.

Leslie Picker (4:11)

Yeah, you're right, Sara. Anthropic announcing its confidential IPO filing three-and-a-half months ago, and so far sources say, as Kate mentioned as well, that it still plans to proceed despite this fever pitch concern over safety. Now, that's because nothing we've heard in recent weeks, especially from CEO Dario Amodei, is demonstrably different than what he or his peers have said before about the risks of uncontrollable AI and the need for industry-wide coordination. However, slowing down the pace of model development while simultaneously contending with unprecedented regulatory, political and security risks, all while pitching investors what is likely to be a lofty price tag is not an easy balance. Amodei's rival, Sam Altman of OpenAI, said it would be ill-advised to go public now, citing concerns about safety. However, even though OpenAI is also confidentially filed, its timeline has long been stretched due to the complexity of its own business and desire to scale the enterprise side before a debut. The big question is how well the market itself holds up, and whether it remains conducive to these listings. All the commentary over the weekend is putting a bit of pressure on the AI infrastructure space this morning, but not a major sell-off yet. And Anthropic seems to continue checking boxes toward its own listing, including selecting the NASDAQ as its venue sources tell us, reportedly speaking with potential anchor investors, including NVIDIA. Now, a near-term IPO question is what Amodei's weekend communications mean for the typical quiet period before an S1 is made public? In normal times, such a move could require a pause, so the lawyers have the chance to pour over the disclosures. But these are anything but normal times, guys.