AI Jitters, NYC’s Quest to Delay Anthropic IPO 10/15/26

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SPEAKER_3 (1:01)

Bring in show music, please.

Katie Kramer (1:04)

Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer. Today on Squawk Pod, a wall of worry.

Joe Kernen (1:11)

We were taking the VIX for granted at 14 It ought to be just hooked up to traders' blood pressure.

Katie Kramer (1:16)

What are we so afraid of? Inflation is up, AI is coming for our jobs, our futures, and the sustainability of the hottest and fastest growing companies today. A look at what's bugging Wall Street. We talked to a veteran investor, one who has seen every cycle, Greg Fleming of Rockefeller Capital Management, on the markets and the policy driving ease or unease.

Greg Fleming (1:37)

The clear issue in the last 10 years is spending.

Katie Kramer (1:41)

Yes.

Greg Fleming (1:41)

And that's not a statement about one party or another, it's a statement about the government.

Katie Kramer (1:46)

Then a call from a top New York City finance official for Anthropic to delay its IPO, controller Mark Levine.

Mark Levine (1:53)

By their own admission, they're building a technology which poses an existential risk. Those are not my words. They're reportedly in the S1. They do not claim to have solved that problem.

Katie Kramer (2:04)

A lot to be concerned about, but at least we have our smartphones.

Joe Kernen (2:08)

Apple made it to 5 trillion.

Katie Kramer (2:11)

It is Thursday, October 15th, 2026 Squawk Pod begins right now.

Andrew Ross Sorkin (2:17)

Stand Becky by in 3, 2, 1

Katie Kramer (2:20)

Cue, please.

Becky Quick (2:23)

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Squawk Box right here on CNBC. I'm Becky Quick along with Joe Kernen and Andrew Ross Sorkin. And boy, what a day it was yesterday and what a morning it's shaping up to be. Now, there's still some call.

Katie Kramer (2:39)

Wall Street is nervous this Thursday. Today, instead of artificial intelligence fueling our existential dread, the spending major companies are doing around the technology has investors concerned that it's maybe out of balance. It's called the AI trade and it's hitting a speed bump. CoreWeave, the latest doc to highlight worries that companies may be borrowing too much for the AI build out. Shares fell more than 15 percent yesterday while yields on the company's debt jumped. In a memo obtained by CNBC, CoreWeave CEO dismissed the moves saying, sometimes the market acts irrationally. The cost of protecting CoreWeave's debt has also risen. Its five-year credit default swaps up past 1,000 basis points.

Another worry in AI, Anthropic is starting to share some of its financial data with investors ahead of a hotly anticipated initial public offering for the AI company. Anthropic's revenue grew to 16.8 billion in the third quarter. With all this excitement about what chat bots can do for you, is that 16 billion enough? But wait, there's more. Yesterday was also the monthly reading of the Consumer Price Index, showing prices on a range of goods across the economy rose faster than expected. Inflation, still here, just what we need to add to all this investor unease.

Becky Quick (3:57)

It kind of all got kickstarted yesterday after we got CPI numbers coming out. Joe, I know you want to talk about that to take a look at the Treasury year olds.

Joe Kernen (4:05)

Yeah, I want to talk about the 10 year, because if what the Treasury Secretary could not do, the CPI did yesterday. For a while yesterday, we were off to the races on yields, headed back to look like 540 almost. And just as the day went on, it came all the way down, we're back down to five out. Now, we would have embraced this. This would have been, oh my God, the yields that we're worried about on the 10 year, except it was going up, the yield on the 10 year for what a lot of people said, it's a good reason, because of growth, because of demand from AI and because of all these great things. I think it's going down for the same reason, because of growth fears now, and fears about AI, and that it could get prohibitively expensive because the Fed has probably got to move now.