Global tech is dominated today by a wave of AI-safety anxiety colliding with record dealmaking — Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and other former researchers warned AI could “take over the internet” or pose extinction-level risk, prompting OpenAI’s Sam Altman to rule out a 2026 IPO and hint at an industry-wide pact to slow frontier development, even as Anthropic itself presses ahead with IPO plans targeting a ~$2.3 trillion valuation before the U.S. midterms; meanwhile Apple unveiled its first foldable iPhone (the “Duo”) under new CEO John Ternus, Oracle’s stock swung on 30% AI-cloud revenue growth alongside Larry Ellison’s plan to sell up to $7.5 billion in shares, Samsung and Qualcomm hit a pricing impasse on 2nm chip production, Tesla teased an October Roadster/SpaceX reveal, Broadcom and Nvidia diverged on investor sentiment despite blowout AI results, and China’s Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu posted diverging earnings as enterprise AI software players Snowflake and Salesforce rallied.
Company-by-company news (September 13, 2026):
- Anthropic: CEO Dario Amodei warned AI could effectively “take over the entire internet,” and a former Anthropic researcher said staff are “genuinely frightened” for humanity’s future, citing >10% odds of AI causing extinction within a decade. Despite the alarm, Anthropic is still expected to begin marketing its IPO as early as mid-October, aiming to complete listing before the U.S. midterm elections, at a valuation potentially reaching $2.3 trillion, and is reportedly telling investors its revenue opportunity could exceed $30 trillion.
- OpenAI: Sam Altman confirmed OpenAI will not IPO in 2026, calling it “an ill-advised moment” given safety concerns, and said leading AI labs may be nearing a joint pact to “pace the frontier” and slow capability advances.
- Oracle: Larry Ellison adopted a trading plan to sell up to $7.5 billion in Oracle stock; the company posted ~30% revenue growth fueled by AI cloud demand, though total debt has climbed to roughly $125 billion.
- Nvidia / Broadcom: Broadcom shares slid even after blowout Q3 results (AI semiconductor revenue up 221% YoY), with CEO Hock Tan projecting AI chip revenue doubling to $230 billion by 2028; Nvidia faces new investor skepticism as “AI angst” weighs on chip valuations broadly.
- Samsung Electronics / Qualcomm: Talks over Qualcomm’s next-gen application processors on Samsung’s 2nm process have stalled purely over pricing (not technology), risking delays into 2027; Samsung is holding firm after locking in big Tesla and Broadcom deals.
- Apple: Unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first foldable device, on September 9 under new CEO John Ternus — a 5.4-inch outer/7.6-inch inner display, titanium hinge, A20 Pro chip, starting at $1,999, with preorders October 16 and sales starting October 23.
- Tesla / SpaceX: Tesla teased an October Roadster reveal event in Waco, Texas, expected to demo SpaceX-derived cold-gas thruster technology, fueling renewed Tesla–SpaceX merger speculation.
- Meta: Continuing rapid AI release cadence (Muse Spark model) and reportedly building a new frontier model; recently agreed to an up-to-$18 billion multistate settlement.
- Alphabet (Google): Reportedly in advanced talks to license technology and hire staff from AI startup Mechanize; stock fell despite a new enterprise-AI push with Accenture targeting a $409B market.
- Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu: Q2 earnings diverged sharply — Tencent beat estimates with margin expansion, while Alibaba and Baidu both missed EPS forecasts.
- Cohere: Released “North-Small-Translate-1.0,” an open translation model reported to outperform DeepL and Google Translate on benchmark scores.
- Snowflake / Salesforce: Snowflake raised its fiscal 2027 revenue target after a strong AI-driven quarter, sparking a broader enterprise-software rally that lifted Salesforce, Atlassian, and others.
- Palantir / Databricks: Cited by analysts alongside Snowflake as proof of robust enterprise AI adoption, though Palantir’s stock has lagged year-to-date on valuation concerns.
- ASML / Intel: Samsung and ASML expanded their semiconductor manufacturing collaboration; Intel shares gained on plans to advance its High-NA EUV lithography roadmap.
- Microsoft: Named among the “tech giants” reportedly pledging to act following Anthropic’s AI-safety warnings.
