AI leaders want to slow frontier development.
But no company promised to stop training runs or cut spending. The work is expected to continue, even as technology stocks fall and investors question what slower development would mean for the AI build-out.
AI Leaders Want Coordination Without Retreating
Anthropic’s Dario Amodei argued that leading AI companies should coordinate on development pace and safety.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman said, “We have to ‘pace the frontier,’” and supported independent inspections of AI labs. SpaceX’s Elon Musk broadly agreed, although the details remain unclear.
Amodei warned that a misaligned swarm could seize the internet within 6 to 12 months and cause hundreds of billions in damage.
Still, Amodei and Altman said a slower pace would not stop their companies’ work, growth, or spending. Frontier research is expected to continue.
This is not a confirmed retreat from AI infrastructure. The companies are asking how to manage frontier development while they continue competing.
The political responses showed how difficult coordination could be.
President Donald Trump rejected the warnings and said, “Whoever wins AI, wins.” Beijing called them fearmongering and a Cold War script intended to freeze China out. Democratic Senator Chris Coons called for congressional guardrails.
Tech Stocks Fall as Skeptics Push Back
SoftBank, which owns about 13 per cent of OpenAI, fell as much as 13 per cent.
The Nasdaq 100 dropped 1.7 per cent at Monday’s open. South Korea’s Kospi fell 2.4 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.1 per cent.
Chipmakers also declined:
- Kioxia fell more than 6 per cent.
- SK Hynix declined 4.3 per cent.
- Samsung Electronics lost 2.5 per cent.
- TSMC fell 0.8 per cent.
South Korea’s and Taiwan’s chipmaker-led indices had both risen about 60 per cent this year. Those gains left AI infrastructure stocks more exposed to questions about development speed.
Michael Burry called OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s warnings “self-serving” IPO hype. Other speakers argued that a coordinated slowdown could protect established companies or reduce spending without giving up market share.
One speaker alleged that viral warnings, media appearances, and the Hugging Face incident were coordinated or staged. Those were his claims, not established facts.
Anthropic was reportedly seeking to raise $100 billion at a $2 trillion valuation. It said its annualized revenue run rate reached $65 billion in July, but its token-based OpenRouter market share fell from about 5% in July to 2.7% by early September.
The speaker believed Anthropic’s revenue had probably peaked and would not support the reported valuation or spending commitments. That was his assessment.
Meta, meanwhile, introduced Muse, a personal AI agent that can book appointments, complete electronic forms, and monitor home security cameras.
Muse will have a free tier and monthly plans costing $20 or $100, depending on usage. Meta is also exploring taking a cut of agent-assisted shopping transactions, but it has no concrete plan.
Muse gives Meta’s AI spending a consumer product, subscription prices, and a possible commerce model.
Oil and Inflation Push the 10-Year Yield Near 5%
The 10-year Treasury yield touched 5% on Monday, its highest level since October 2023, before retreating to around 4.96%.
August headline inflation was 3.4% from a year earlier. Core inflation rose 0.3% during the month, above the 0.2% expectation.
Energy was already adding pressure. The energy index rose 16.3% from a year earlier. Gasoline increased 27.4%, and diesel fuel rose 52%.
Brent moved toward or above $105 to $108. WTI rose above $100.
The Saudi East-West pipeline was shut after drone strikes. It had been moving roughly 3 to 5 million barrels a day, and repairs may take weeks.
Higher oil can mean more inflation pressure. That makes lower rates harder.
The CME FedWatch tool showed markets pricing in 90% odds of a Federal Reserve rate increase on Wednesday. Another speaker put the probability at 92.3% after the inflation report, up from 59.4%.
President Trump called for rates of 1 percent or half a percent rather than 4 percent. Fed chair Kevin Warsh had said rate increases could soon be considered and stressed the 2% inflation target.
Those positions do not fit together.
Higher rates make debt more expensive and reduce what future cash flows are worth today. That leaves leveraged and unprofitable companies more vulnerable. One speaker described mature profitable businesses and cash-rich companies as better placed.
The Treasury also announced a $6 billion government debt buyback. That exceeded its $4 billion pledge but fell below the $8 billion to $10 billion investors had discussed. The 10-year yield rose 0.05 percentage points afterward, and Krishna Guha of Evercore ISI said markets appeared “underwhelmed.”
Growth, Savings, and Shifting International Ties
LVMH’s business grew almost fourfold over a little more than a decade, while profits increased fivefold over 12 years.
But the stock has fallen 53% from its 2023 peak. Earnings per share peaked at 30 and are now at 20.
Using earnings per share of €22, the supplied speaker found different outcomes depending on growth and the P ratio. His current assessment was high risk and low return. Growth could change that quickly, but analysts were waiting for a recovery in luxury spending and cited limited visibility for the second half.
President Trump said, “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES!” and said the company must build in America.
Bombardier responded that it employs workers in more than 20 states, operates sites in 10 states, and uses American-made aircraft systems. It also plans to open a facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, later this year.
The dispute came before Canadian retaliatory tariffs on about $20 billion of U.S. goods following Trump’s announced 50% tariffs.
Fidelity said the average 401(k) balance rose 10.5% from March through June, the largest quarterly increase since 2020. Average saving reached 14.4% of pay, including employer contributions.
Bloomberg also reported that some of the world’s top hedge funds were opening offices in Athens.
One speaker argued that Trump’s tariffs and other policies were pushing China, India, and Russia closer together. BRICS has 10 members and 10 partner countries, and its members discussed more local-currency settlement and digital currencies connecting their central banks.
Another speaker compared reported inflation of 3.4% with M2 money supply growth of 3.59% through July, described as a 6.2% annualized rate. He left unresolved whether that supported a rate increase on Wednesday.
A 5% Treasury yield does not decide stock returns by itself. The speed and cause of the increase, plus company earnings, also matter.