Shirin Ghaffary

Reporter at @business covering AI. Send me your AI questions, hopes, fears: [email protected]

DM me off-the-record on Signal. username: shirin.30

[Shirin Ghaffary @shiringhaffary]

Scoop from my colleague @dinabass on Anthropic hiring one of the leaders behind Google’s TPU as it lays groundwork for its own chips

[Dina Bass @dinabass]

Anthropic has hired Google TPU founder and former head Amir Salek for its compute team as the AI lab lays the groundwork for its own chips. Salek has most recently been at Cerberus Capital Management
https://t.co/alMSBNBsjt

[Dina Bass @dinabass]

Anthropic has hired Google TPU founder and former head Amir Salek for its compute team as the AI lab lays the groundwork for its own chips. Salek has most recently been at Cerberus Capital Management
https://t.co/alMSBNBsjt

[Brody Ford @BrodyFord_]

@Leonardonclt Tech companies are going on a charm offensive to try to push through data center plans. With @joshfromalaska, @dinabass, @Leonardonclt https://t.co/KftDIfv2Yq

[Techmeme @Techmeme]

Sources: Anthropic expects to match or beat the size of SpaceX's record-setting IPO, as it prepares to file publicly for its IPO as soon as the end of August (Bloomberg)

(Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

[Rebecca Torrence @RebeccaTorrenc5]

Big stuff from @BTLipschultz @shiringhaffary

[Shirin Ghaffary @shiringhaffary]

Another new bit:

[Shirin Ghaffary @shiringhaffary]

NEW: Anthropic expects to match or exceed the size of SpaceX's IPO, per sources, which would make it one of the largest-ever IPOs. Discussions ongoing and could change.

w/ @BTLipschultz
https://t.co/MPwdPHTM2q

[Shirin Ghaffary @shiringhaffary]

More new in here:
-Anthropic saw positive adjusted operating income for the second quarter, but had a net loss of almost $42 bil in 2025, a roughly fivefold increase from about $8.3 bil in 2024

[Shirin Ghaffary @shiringhaffary]

NEW: Anthropic hit $65 bil+ in annualized (run rate) revenue in July, up from $47 bil in May. Comes ahead of an IPO expected as soon as this fall.

w/ @nmasc_ @RebeccaTorrenc5
https://t.co/v9ZBqC9Lhq

[Shirin Ghaffary @shiringhaffary]

Amodei: “I do agree that the public has a negative view of AI (and that this is a big problem), but I don’t think it is primarily caused by me or any other AI leader warning about AI’s risks.  I think it is fundamentally a crisis of trust.”

[Dario Amodei @DarioAmodei]

2/2 Second, on the messaging around AI.  I do not agree that my messaging has been disproportionately negative.  In fact it has been about equally balanced between risks and benefits: I’ve written one major essay about each, and even in interviews where I discuss the risks, I make sure to frequently mention the incredible benefits as well as proposing possible solutions to the risks (short clips from my interviews that end up on social media tend to be disproportionately negative, as that gets clicks).  In fact, I wrote Machines of Loving Grace because I didn’t feel the AI industry was painting an inspiring enough picture of how the technology could radically transform the world for the better.  The bulk of the essay is devoted to refuting skepticism of AI’s potential in health and biology, and showing why I think it will actually be possible to cure most human disease in ~5-10 years, as crazy as it may sound to ordinary people and frankly to biologists as well (I used to be one!).  And, if you read my most recent essay (Policy on the AI Exponential), I discuss concrete proposals for how to streamline the FDA process to make sure the deluge of AI-accelerated drugs isn’t slowed down by the regulatory process.  I feel the urgency here: I lost my father to Hepatitis C only a few years before the development of direct-acting antivirals (sofosbuvir), which cure 95% of patients and probably would have cured him.

I do agree that the public has a negative view of AI (and that this is a big problem), but I don’t think it is primarily caused by me or any other AI leader warning about AI’s risks.  I think it is fundamentally a crisis of trust.  I think that ordinary people don’t trust companies, governments, or the tech industry and always suspect that we are cooking up some new way to screw them over.  The causes of this go back decades and AI is just the latest iteration of it.  I don’t think that a glitzy marketing campaign with a positive spin (which some have advocated that Anthropic do) is the way to win back that trust — at this point, saying that AI will cure cancer is more a cliche than it is inspiring, and most people think it is deceptive.  The thing that will work is *actually curing cancer*.  I think by far the most accurate criticism of AI companies including Anthropic is that we haven’t yet delivered on our big promises to benefit the world.  That is totally on us, and I think it’s the criticism you should be making, instead of all this stuff about messaging and marketing.

We are however doing our best to fix this: Anthropic is ramping up its efforts very quickly in biology and medicine, and we hope to have incredible results in the coming years and some early glimmers in the coming months.  When we’ve actually accomplished something real, the whole world will hear about it, as loudly as possible, you have my word on that.  But until then I don’t want to make empty promises, and in the meantime I feel compelled to speak honestly about the very real risks of AI and how to address them.  Honesty is the right thing on the merits, and in terms of public credibility and trust it is no worse than, and may in fact be better than, an approach that ignores or distracts from risks which people instinctively understand are real.

[Shirin Ghaffary @shiringhaffary]

Rare Dario tweet

[Dario Amodei @DarioAmodei]

1/2 Thanks Gavin for an especially thoughtful exchange. I don't usually spend much time on social media but I wanted to engage here because it really brings out the heart of an important conversation.

First, on regulation, I think that “either concentrate it in the hands of a chosen few companies and politicians via regulation or distribute it widely” is a false choice.  I know that there’s a sort of Silicon Valley shorthand where regulation = regulatory capture = concentration of power, but I’ve always found this to be an overly simplified picture of the world.  Many people outside this bubble think of regulation as something that constrains corporate power and benefits ordinary people.  I don’t necessarily agree with that perspective either, rather I think it’s complicated and really depends on what the “regulation” consists of.  But in particular I think that those in the “regulation = regulatory capture = concentration of power” frame often underrate the decentralizing power of objective and fair institutional processes.  A crude analogy is that the formal court system can sometimes feel stuffy and elitist, but it does a much better job of defending the rights of vulnerable individuals than the alternative, mob justice.  At their best, institutions can vest power in ideas rather than people, and thereby decentralize that power.

This is why Anthropic has always made its policy proposals very carefully.  We try very hard to make proposals that disadvantage (slow down) frontier AI companies while *advantaging* smaller competitors.  California’s SB53 (which we supported), and even the much-maligned SB 1047 (which we were ambivalent on), completely exempt any company below a certain amount of revenue or model training costs from being covered at all (it was $500M for SB 53, lower for 1047 but we objected to that).  More recently the testing process we’ve advocated for at CAISI and the White House involves more rigorous tests for frontier models than off-frontier models — something that differentially advantages challengers.  Similarly, the “Pacing the Frontier” letter envisions (or at least Anthropic’s preferred implementation of it envisions) modulating the pace of the very best models while not constraining those who are catching up.  This hurts the business interests of the frontier labs and helps challengers, including open-weights!

Overall my view is that AI is *structurally* a technology that tends to concentrate power, for reasons that have nothing to do with regulation (more to do with the extreme implications of the scaling laws).  Open-weights do help some with this but are nowhere near a sufficient solution because they simply shift the concentration somewhat to those with the most compute and chips (which are roughly the frontier labs plus maybe hardware providers).  By contrast I think the right “rules of the road” can simultaneously (a) address AI’s cyber/bio/alignment risks, (b) institutionally constrain the power of the frontier AI companies, and (c) leave room for open-weights models while also addressing the specific risks that they bring.

BTW I do not think that the events of the last few months have “failed to result in [my] preferred regulatory path”.  The approach that the Trump administration is reported to be taking — pre-deployment testing for frontier models, and also testing of open-weights models when they get closer to the frontier — is one that I am very supportive of, though of course I have to see the details to be sure.  I am also supportive of Demis Hassabis’ ideas around a FINRA-like entity.  This contrasts with six months ago when most of the industry was still pushing for preemption of all state regulation and no apparent federal approach either.

[Shirin Ghaffary @shiringhaffary]

NEW: OpenAI chief revenue officer Denise Dresser is leaving after less than a year to pursue other opportunities. OpenAI's new CRO will be Dali Rajic, President of Alphabet-owned cyber firm Wiz.

Latest exec change at the company
https://t.co/V4EUAOvLEi

[Shirin Ghaffary @shiringhaffary]

NEW: Anthropic is in talks to acquire world-model and inference optimization Israel-based AI startup Decart for $6 billion, per sources

w/ @Lynnmdoan @nmasc_ @rngould
https://t.co/iMbnhwNjgl

[Natasha Mascarenhas @nmasc_]

"I love surprising the world."

We sat down with @RobertIger this morning to discuss his bid with Josh Kushner to buy the Los Angeles Lakers. The news came two months after the duo, who run Thrive Eternal, explored a now-abandoned bid for the Las Vegas expansion team.

https://t.co/YwICurbtVP

[Shirin Ghaffary @shiringhaffary]

and profile on Lightcap two years ago https://t.co/rJn76TvX5B

[Shirin Ghaffary @shiringhaffary]

Notable departure. Brad Lightcap is one of the most longstanding early execs still at OAI aside from Sam and Greg Brockman.

He already had moved from a COO role to lead special projects in April, now says he's starting something new entirely.

[Brad Lightcap @bradlightcap]

i shared the message below with the openai team this morning. these decisions are never easy, but the talent and mission orientation of the openai team make me more optimistic than ever. 🤍

###

Team, it is bittersweet to share that I’ll be moving on from OpenAI to start something new. I feel incredibly fortunate to have spent most of the last decade pursuing our mission and building this company. Sitting here today, mission success feels within sight. It has been the honor of my life to help bring us to this point, and to do it alongside all of you.

I joined OpenAI in 2018, eight years ago this month, because I wanted to work on something hard. @sama introduced me to @gdb and @ilyasut, who showed me a pitch deck suggesting that because models improve predictably with scale, AGI was not only possible but likely. If you had told me then that we’d be where we are today, I wouldn't have believed you.

In the years that followed, I had the privilege of building the first versions of most of our operations and business teams – from Finance to Legal, People, CorpSec, GTM/Gov, Partnerships, and more. Among the most rewarding parts of this journey for me has been watching each of these teams mature under brilliant leaders. I am excited for the next decade in the hands of this incredibly capable team.

At the same time, we grew from a small research lab to one of the most consequential companies of our time. I was reminded of that fact constantly – from serving our first user to our billionth, to the growing scale and ambition of our partnerships and the occasional curveball (the Blip, etc.).

Through it all, I’m proud of how we’ve maintained our focus on people. It always amazes me how quickly the world has adopted our tools and rallied behind our mission. I hope we will continue to earn their trust.

Over the last few months, I’ve been focused on the next horizon and what would stand in the way of mission success. I believe there are a few important new things the world will need to get right as we enter this next period. I’ll have more to share soon, but I believe in OpenAI more than ever and am excited to help you all advance the mission from a different vantage point.

I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to work with all of you, and to so many of you for the support through the years. The old OpenAI meme that “the real AGI is the friends you made along the way” really rings true for me.

I will be around for the next few weeks. I am not going far and hope to continue to support you all however I can. I’ll always be a phone call away if you need me.

Brad

[Shirin Ghaffary @shiringhaffary]

Our story on the news today https://t.co/rJbABeU3jc

[Techmeme @Techmeme]

Sources: Anthropic agreed to a 20-year, $9.1B compute deal with Riot Platforms for 191 MW of capacity at a Rockdale, TX campus; RIOT jumps ~25% after hours (@shiringhaffary / Bloomberg)

(Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)