SoftBank shares plunge as calls grow to slow AI development
AI development should slow down, leading developers have warned, as the industry faces growing calls to put safety ahead of profits. The comments weighed heavily on technology shares on Monday.
Shares in Japanese investment conglomerate SoftBank Group, a major investor in OpenAI, plunged more than 10% on Monday, alongside other technology shares, after executives at some of the world’s leading AI companies backed calls to prioritise “caution over speed and prudence over profit”.
The phrase was used by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who called on Saturday for AI companies to “pace the frontier” through a coordinated slowdown in the development of their most advanced models, allowing more time to understand and manage the risks.
Among his main concerns is so-called “recursive self-improvement”, in which AI systems help to build the next generation of AI models.
“Left unchecked, it could outrun our ability to understand and control these systems, and so must be pursued very carefully, if at all,” Amodei wrote.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI CEO Elon Musk publicly backed his warning, with Musk saying: “Dario is right.”
Altman also told Fortune in an interview published on Saturday that OpenAI would not proceed with an initial public offering this year, as the company focuses on safety.
OpenAI and Anthropic are both privately owned. Anthropic is reportedly preparing for a possible stock market listing in the coming months.
The comments followed the resignation of Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who warned that the technology could escape human control.
Evan Hubinger, another Anthropic researcher who remains at the company, subsequently wrote: “We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!” He said he believed the probability was greater than 10% within the next decade.
US President Donald Trump rejected the warnings on Sunday, calling AI critics “very negative forces” and saying the scenarios they raised would not happen. House Speaker Mike Johnson also urged people not to panic.
SoftBank’s decline “probably reflects the possibility that AI development may be slowed by regulators to try to avoid the worst-case outcomes that Anthropic and OpenAI have discussed,” said Dan Baker of investment research firm Morningstar.
“And maybe [it] also reflects the possibility that any further examples of loss of control of newer AI models could also slow AI development,” he added.
Other AI-related shares in Asia also fell. South Korean memory-chip maker SK Hynix lost 5.3%, while Samsung Electronics dropped 2.8%. Japanese chip-equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron fell 0.9%, while memory-chip maker Kioxia Holdings sank 6%.
Amodei also called for tighter restrictions on China’s access to advanced AI chips and semiconductor-manufacturing equipment, arguing that chips would largely determine the country’s AI capabilities.
However, he acknowledged to CBS News that the “toughest dilemma” was that China might not join a coordinated slowdown.
China’s state-backed Global Times described his position as “short-sighted” and accused him of trying to restrict China’s development through an “AI Cold War”. Meanwhile, President Xi Jinping has proposed a BRICS open-source AI zone to deepen cooperation on AI models and training.
