According to reports from Reuters, Anthropic is considering rolling out a new artificial intelligence model to counter OpenAI's growing momentum following the launch of GPT-6 Astra this month. The deliberations come ahead of an expected initial public offering and shortly after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for an industry-wide slowdown in the development of more capable AI systems. As reported by Reuters, three sources confirm that the timing of a potential launch aimed at addressing competitive pressure from a direct rival follows Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei's call on the global AI community to slow down the pace of releasing new capabilities to address safety concerns. The essay, published on September 12, painted a bleak picture of swarms of AI agents taking over the internet and moving beyond human control, drawing support from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Reuters reports that the potential launch would test Anthropic's ability to defend its position in enterprise AI while maintaining the safety-first identity that has distinguished it from competitors.
According to Reuters, Anthropic is evaluating the safety of its next model as part of its deliberations over a possible release. Some discussions have focused on balancing investment in new models with efforts to strengthen the company's profitability as rising interest rates make investors more focused on the timing of expected profits. The company has declined to comment for this story, but the debate over spending highlights the increasing pressure on the firms at the centre of the AI boom to produce sustainable cash flows sooner, thanks both to rising rates and tough competition from open-source AI providers, especially in China. A launch would test Anthropic's ability to defend its position in enterprise AI while maintaining the safety-first identity that has distinguished it from competitors.
As reported by Reuters, OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra has received a strong response from enterprise users and developers, prompting potential investors in an Anthropic IPO to scrutinize whether OpenAI could begin taking market share from the company. According to the latest available data from corporate expense platform Ramp, Astra accounted for about 13% of enterprise AI spending, compared with about 8% for Anthropic's Claude Fable. Astra has also pulled ahead on OpenRouter, a widely used platform that routes developers' traffic across AI models, with OpenRouter reporting that its users spent more on OpenAI models than on Anthropic models last week, marking the first time OpenAI had led by that measure in more than two and a half years. Some existing investors and those who expect to invest in both Anthropic's and OpenAI's IPOs said they do not believe Astra poses a significant threat to Anthropic, given the size of its lead in the market for enterprise AI tools and the amount of time it takes to unseat incumbent vendors to large companies.
According to Reuters, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote a 3,800-word essay published on September 12, calling for an industry-wide slowdown in the development of more capable AI systems. The essay, which painted a bleak picture of swarms of AI agents taking over the internet and outpacing human control, drew support from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. OpenAI CEO Altman confirmed on Saturday that the company would not go public in 2026, saying concerns around AI safety made this an ill-advised time for a listing. This development has taken some pressure off the race to public markets, with Anthropic potentially pushing its IPO to after the November US midterm elections. The timing of a potential launch aimed at addressing competitive pressure from a direct rival follows Anthropic's CEO call on the global AI community to slow down the pace of releasing new capabilities to address safety concerns.
According to Reuters, Anthropic's annualized revenue run rate topped $65 billion by the end of July, up from about $9 billion at the end of 2025. The company is also projecting a 2028 revenue of roughly $190 billion to $200 billion. OpenAI's annualized revenue run rate passed $40 billion in July. The IPO has already been pushed back from earlier plans, with marketing expected to begin in mid-October at the earliest. However, investors also expect leadership among major AI developers to shift repeatedly as companies release new generations of models, making any advantage potentially short-lived. The bigger challenge for Anthropic and other leading AI providers is the rise of open-source and open-weight models, which can lower token costs and allow companies to build more of their own AI infrastructure rather than rely on providers such as Anthropic and OpenAI. Meta Platforms has been among Anthropic's largest customers, but is looking to reduce its use of Anthropic's models as it develops more AI capabilities internally.
