Activists Say Anthropic IPO ‘Feels Like a Game of Jenga’
Stop Funding Billionaires protested Anthropic's planned market debut with a six-foot Jenga tower in San Francisco. Organizer Jonathan Westin says the AI boom is precarious and warns that retirement savings are exposed. Five protesters were arrested at an earlier New York demonstration.
Activists with the group Stop Funding Billionaires protested Anthropic's initial public offering (IPO) outside its offices in New York on November 9 and San Francisco a day later, saying the AI boom feels like a game of Jenga. Anthropic's market debut is set for next week.
In San Francisco, the group unveiled a six-foot-tall Jenga tower made by a Bay Area artist. The demonstration carried the #BlocktheIPO banner.
Organizer Jonathan Westin said the market looks increasingly precarious. His group worries about Americans' exposure if the AI bubble pops.
"It continues to be this very speculative shell game," Westin said of the tech-fueled boom. "It feels like a game of Jenga where if one thing falls, the whole system will fall."
Retirement savings at issue
The group's core argument echoes that of many AI skeptics. The future of AI is uncertain, and a collapse in the bull market could hit the retirement savings of working Americans and retirees.
Fellow organizer Elizabeth Parisian said the risks would be "borne by working people, particularly working people whose retirement savings are exposed to it, which will be virtually anyone who is in an index fund."
Some professional investors share the bearish view and see Anthropic as a speculative investment once it trades publicly.
Earlier SpaceX protest
The group raised similar alarms when SpaceX began trading in June. It protested the IPO and warned that changing requirements to fast-track the stock into major indexes poses outsize risks to investor portfolios.
Westin compared Anthropic's position to the banks before the 2008 crash. "I think in many ways, it's trying to become too big to fail," he said, adding that "this feels eerily familiar to us."
His views align with those of Michael Burry, the "Big Short" investor, who recently said a stock market crash that stopped Anthropic and OpenAI from going public would benefit humanity.
Arrests in New York
Police arrested five protesters at the New York demonstration, including Westin. He said he has no regrets and that more direct action is needed.
"Unfortunately, the financial system is now set up in a way where it's very opaque to the regular person what's at stake here," Westin said.
Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment.
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