What’s moving in the markets
☠️ Big bad AI is coming to kill us all
Three of the top AI CEOs came together to push AI regulation and “responsible building”
Last week, an Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, resigned publicly warning that the people building AI privately believe these systems can kill us all within the decade. Rather than getting dismissed, that warning landed hard enough that Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk, three men who agree on almost nothing, all called for slowing the pace of AI development.
Now, investors are putting 2 and 2 together: OpenAI recently delayed its IPO to 2027, which could be a sign that even Altman doesn't think the growth story is ready to withstand public market scrutiny right now. Meanwhile, the data centre build-out that's supposed to justify trillions in AI capex is running into a real wall: tens of billions of dollars in projects already blocked or delayed by local opposition over power prices, water use, and noise, in state after state and country after country.
Put those two things next to a joint statement from Amodei, Altman, and Musk asking for the industry to slow down, and for markets this raises the possibility of a slowdown in data centre rollout, or a slowing of demand for chips, both of which would undermine the foundations of the investment thesis in many big-name stocks.
But maybe, just maybe, this is noise rising up to cover the signal. When was the last time a CEO asked to be regulated? Never. There's a good reason for that: incentives. What do Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk have in common, besides running the world's top AI companies? They're all very rich, very capitalist men. Co-signing a statement that their own technology is too dangerous for humanity serves them in at least two ways. First, it's the ultimate hype move: "we're so powerful we might be dangerous" sells better than any product launch. Second, regulation would cement their lead. New entrants would struggle to compete once the regulatory moat goes up behind the incumbents.
Over the weekend, Trump answered with a statement of his own: "Whoever wins with AI wins." No stick in America's own wheels, no ceding the race to China.
So regulation isn't coming from the top of government. Which raises the real question: did Musk, Amodei, and Altman already know that? Did they call for a slowdown precisely because geopolitics guarantees it will never happen; a costless way to look responsible while the race continues unchecked? Are these selfish, self-interested men chasing money and market position? Or are they genuinely altruistic, willing to listen to a society asking them to slow down before AI is force-fed into every corner of our lives?
Going strictly off base rates, we're taking the bet on the former. And if that's right, any AI-related stock that craters on this shift in mood is worth a second look. Because the data centres are still getting built. Revenue and profitability across hardware and AI buildout are exploding, capacity is constrained everywhere, and order books are already locked in for 2027. Enterprises are adopting AI at an accelerating pace, and data and connectivity demand is booming across the board. In our view, that's the real signal.
If you’re going to act on any of this:
If a stock you like sells off on this news, ask whether anything about its actual order book, revenue, or margins changed this week.
Demand a margin of safety before you buy the dip. A sell-off is only a gift if the valuation was reasonable to begin with. Some AI-adjacent names have been priced for perfection for two years; a wobble doesn't make an expensive stock cheap, it just makes it less expensive.
Watch what the companies do, not what the CEOs say. Capex guidance, backlog disclosures, and customer commitments on the next few earnings calls will tell you more about whether this slowdown is real than any joint statement will.
Resist the urge to trade the news cycle at all. If the base rate says self-interest usually beats altruism, then the most likely outcome is that nothing here changes the multi-year thesis.
Database updates
🅰 Ratings
➡️ Microsoft (MSFT) got a rating re-iteration
“Plenty of people still aren’t convinced that AI has a positive return on investment – just look at Microsoft. Growth in Azure is accelerating, and the number of enterprises rolling Copilot out to the majority of their information workers is exploding(…) As a bonus, Microsoft is staying cash flow positive (the only one out of the hyperscalers). The company is spending the Goldilocks amount: not too little that investors worry about Microsoft falling behind, but not too much that they question the return on investment(…)”
Click here to view the full update.
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