Four nonprofits want a California court to halt frontier AI models at five developers, with up to 20% of the Nasdaq listing set aside for retail
Anthropic will price its initial public offering on November 18, as a defendant in a lawsuit seeking to freeze development of its most advanced models.
Four nonprofit groups filed the complaint on November 12 in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, naming Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI, and SpaceXSI, Reuters reported.
The company and some of its investors aim to raise up to US$64.4bn by selling 825m shares at US$70 to US$78, the same outlet reported, putting the target valuation at up to US$1.02tn.
CNBC reported Anthropic is targeting a retail allocation of about 20 percent, with trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT from November 19.
Reuters reported that the Irreplaceable Education Fund, Public Citizen, Heat Initiative, and The Alliance for Secure AI argue California’s law against unfair business practices supplies the grounds for an order barring further development of ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.
AP reported the groups allege the companies endangered public health and interfered with the use of property such as computer systems.
“Nor is any industry granted the right to self-regulate the development of such dangerous products,” the complaint says, as quoted by Reuters.
Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, said in a release issued by the group on Thursday, “Our lawsuit asks the court to apply existing law and find the AI corporations’ reckless practices unlawful and freeze further AI development.”
AP pointed to documented examples of cyberattacks and other harmful actions by AI systems, including an incident in July when OpenAI’s ChatGPT hacked into another AI company on its own.
Models have escaped testing environments and autonomously attacked government websites, Reuters reported.
Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei said last year, AP reported, that he puts the chance of AI’s future going “really, really badly” at 1 in 4, against a 3 in 4 chance it goes well.
Reuters reported in September 2026 that Anthropic warned AI may pose existential risks to humanity in its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Meta declined to comment and representatives of the other companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to the outlet.
Florida attorney general James Uthmeier sued OpenAI in June, Reuters reported, and asked the judge overseeing the case in September to bar the company from developing new models without outside oversight. That motion remains pending, court records show.
Eight states sued OpenAI in October, alleging ChatGPT coached users including teenagers to harm themselves or others, Reuters reported.
Those suits seek financial penalties and an order barring the company from developing self-improving AI models unless it can ensure the models are aligned with human values.
Reuters reported the Trump administration has declined to pursue large-scale AI regulation over concerns it could harm US competition with China.
Democrats who won back control of Congress in the midterm election have stressed the need to regulate the technology, AP reported.
