Can Anthropic Become the FTX of AI?

Is Anthropic a systemic risk for artificial intelligence?

What if Anthropic became for artificial intelligence what FTX was for cryptocurrencies: a player so central in its ecosystem that a crisis of confidence could cause tremors far beyond the company?

This is the question raised by Kevin Bass in a lengthy thread published on X. The analyst accuses Anthropic of contributing to the construction of a form of "regulatory capture," in which investors, organizations specializing in AI safety, and future regulatory actors maintain too close ties.

I have conducted an audit of Anthropic's finances.

What I have found is so shocking that I am calling for a Congressional investigation.

Anthropic is not just seeking regulatory capture.

It has built a regulatory capture machine that cannot be turned off.

Structural financial... pic.twitter.com/fyqQeSLsC8

--- Kevin Bass (@kevinnbass) September 14, 2026

At the heart of his demonstration are Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook and Asana, and his foundation Good Ventures. Bass claims that it has a significant financial exposure to Anthropic, whose value would have exploded with the surge in the laboratory's valuation. According to him, some of the philanthropic networks that fund research on AI risks would thus indirectly have an interest in the financial success of the company.

The analyst is now calling on the U.S. Congress to look into these relationships. However, it should be noted that these accusations do not currently demonstrate the existence of a coordinated system or a direct conflict of interest.

Is METR, the evaluator of Anthropic, really independent?

The controversy raised by Kevin Bass also targets the organizations responsible for evaluating the most powerful models. Among them, METR, for Model Evaluation and Threat Research, occupies a central place. Founded by Beth Barnes, a former researcher at OpenAI, the organization has established itself as one of the leading external evaluators of so-called "frontier" models.

Anthropic defends the use of such auditors. Dario Amodei argues that external evaluators should have in-depth access to the models to test their capabilities and dangerous behaviors. METR is already working with Anthropic, but also with OpenAI, Google, and Meta.

It is this proximity that Kevin Bass criticizes. According to him, a small circle of organizations responsible for evaluating laboratories operates within the same philanthropic and institutional ecosystem as they do. He specifically mentions indirect links between certain funders of AI safety research, Anthropic, and METR.

However, METR claims not to receive any funding from major AI laboratories, even though the organization acknowledges benefiting from free tokens and technical access to their models to conduct its evaluations.

Bass, however, broadens his criticism to the entire ecosystem, in which the same philanthropic networks would fund organizations alerting to the risks of AI while Anthropic advocates for safety rules and strengthened external audits.

The analyst thus points out a paradox: Anthropic develops some of the most powerful models in the world while advocating for a slowdown in AI, stricter safety rules, and more external audits. For its detractors, these costly requirements could mainly reinforce the position of already well-funded laboratories and complicate the entry of new competitors.

An "FTX moment" for artificial intelligence?

Before its collapse in November 2022, FTX had become indispensable in crypto, with prestigious investors, political connections, regulatory influence, and a massive media presence. When trust evaporated, the crisis contaminated the entire market.

Anthropic occupies an equally strategic position in AI today: a cutting-edge laboratory, partner of hyperscalers, huge consumer of computing power, interlocutor of governments, and major player in the security debate.

While no accounting fraud or misuse of client funds comparable to FTX has been established at Anthropic, the danger would rather be that of a systemic crisis of confidence. A governance scandal, a serious incident involving Claude, or a challenge to the independence of audits could suddenly weaken Anthropic and, by extension, the companies whose valuations depend on the continued boom of AI.

With nearly $800 billion in expected AI infrastructure spending this year among major tech companies, markets could react sharply to a potential slowdown in the sector.

Sources: X / @kevinnbass, Business Insider, TRT World

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