Lawsuit says Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google made illegal agreement on AI slowdown

A new class-action lawsuit has been filed against major artificial intelligence companies Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google, alleging an illegal agreement to intentionally slow down AI development. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday, September 18, 2026, claims these companies violated antitrust laws by coordinating efforts to decelerate advancements, thereby reducing the value of paid AI subscriptions for consumers.

The plaintiffs assert that this alleged coordination largely materialized around September 12, 2026, following Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's public essay advocating for industry-wide cooperation to "pace the frontier" of AI development due to safety concerns. Reportedly, leaders including OpenAI's Sam Altman, SpaceXAI's Elon Musk, and Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis publicly voiced agreement with Amodei's proposals.

Subscribers to AI services like ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Gemini are among the plaintiffs, arguing that antitrust laws forbid competitors from making collective agreements to restrict progress. They contend that decisions to slow down AI development for safety should be made independently by each company or through government regulation, rather than through an alleged anticompetitive pact among industry rivals.