New York City Comptroller Mark Levine wants Anthropic to hit the brakes on what could become the largest IPO in history.
Levine is urging the company behind the Claude models to pause its public offering until concerns about AI safety, corporate governance and the pace of development are addressed.
What Levine is asking for
Levine’s request targets three areas: safety, governance and speed. He has been pushing for stronger corporate governance standards in major tech listings, and Anthropic’s offering is about as major as tech listings get.
His position lines up with economist Jeffrey Sachs. Sachs has called for a pause on IPOs like Anthropic’s until federal rules covering safety and liability are in place.
Levine has warned that rapid AI adoption could cause serious economic disruption in New York City. His projections suggest the city could lose up to 135,000 jobs. He also estimates that nearly $9 billion in tax revenue could disappear over a four-year span due to AI-related pressures.
Levine’s May 2026 report put forward a cushion for that scenario. It recommends a rainy-day fund equal to 16% of annual tax revenue to help absorb potential AI fallout.
The IPO at the center of it all
Anthropic has confidentially filed for its offering. The company is expected to target a valuation of about $2 trillion, with potential fundraising exceeding $100 billion. The listing could land as soon as mid-November 2026.
The prospectus, which Reuters has reportedly reviewed, includes 80 pages dedicated to risk factors. Among them: the possibility that Anthropic’s own AI models pose threats to humanity. The filing reportedly flags that some models might resist being shut down or display coercive behavior.
The prospectus reportedly outlines predicted losses of $42 billion in 2025.
A CEO who also wants things to slow down
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has himself publicly called on the industry to slow AI development over safety concerns. In a September 2026 statement, Amodei warned of catastrophic risks. He suggested a 25% chance of extreme negative outcomes.
OpenAI’s leadership has echoed similar calls for a slower pace.
Levine’s request essentially asks Anthropic to apply its stated caution to its own capital-raising timeline.
Background: why a city comptroller is weighing in
A comptroller is a city’s chief financial watchdog. The role typically involves auditing agencies, managing budgets and overseeing large public pension investments. Pension funds are exactly the type of institutional investors that buy into blockbuster IPOs.
Sachs’s push for federal regulation adds another layer. His view is that liability and safety rules should be settled before AI companies tap public markets at this scale.
What this means for investors and policymakers
For policymakers, the episode sharpens an uncomfortable gap. Federal rules on AI safety and liability are not yet in place, as Sachs points out. Meanwhile, city officials like Levine are already modeling job losses and planning rainy-day funds.
The key things to watch are Anthropic’s response to Levine, whether other public pension overseers join his call, and whether the mid-November 2026 timeline holds. Any movement on federal AI rules before then could also change the calculus for Sachs, Levine and anyone considering a stake in the offering.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.