US Urged to Nationalize OpenAI and Anthropic if $1 Trillion AI Valuations Collapse
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 12
US Urged to Nationalize OpenAI and Anthropic if $1 Trillion AI Valuations Collapse
2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 12
Summary
A new proposal argues the US should take over OpenAI and Anthropic and turn them into publicly run AI labs if their private-market model fails.
The case rests on weak economics: frontier models cost heavily to train, lose value within months, face price pressure as commodities, and compete against free open-source and Chinese alternatives.
That pressure comes just weeks after both companies filed for IPOs in June amid talk of trillion-dollar valuations, even as backlash to AI datacenters and doubts about sustainable profitability grow.
The plan would split innovation from compute—placing research under Congress-backed national-lab style oversight and treating AI operations more like regulated utility or supercomputing infrastructure.
Supporters say public ownership could make leading models more transparent and publicly accountable, while reducing investor-driven spending races and aligning AI development with social benefit over profit.