Lawsuit accuses Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, Google of AI pacing 'collusion'

A recent lawsuit alleges that Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google conspired illegally to slow down their respective artificial intelligence development. Filed on Friday in the Northern District of California, the legal action claims the tech giants violated antitrust laws through their coordinated efforts. According to the suit, the alleged slowdown measures took effect on September 12, when Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay calling for industry-wide cooperation to decelerate advancements in favor of increased safety protocols.

The following day, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk, and DeepMind co-founder and chair Demis Hassabis each responded publicly in agreement with Amodei's proposals.

However, the lawsuit also asserts that these coordinated efforts began months earlier. It cites a statement from July 2026, signed by high-ranking employees from several leading AI laboratories. The statement acknowledged the intense competitive pressure to refrain from unilaterally accelerating AI development. The plaintiffs argue that this prior coordination, combined with the explicit September 12 agreement, constituted an unlawful collaboration that would ultimately diminish the value consumers receive for paid AI subscriptions.