Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google accused in a lawsuit of illegally coordinating to slow the development of artificial intelligence

Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google are accused in a federal lawsuit filed Friday in California of having reached an illegal agreement to coordinate slowing the development of artificial intelligence, in violation of U.S. antitrust laws.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by four subscribers to the ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Gemini services. The plaintiffs are seeking certification of a nationwide class consisting of paying users and claim that the alleged coordination would reduce competition and the value of services offered to consumers.

At the center of the complaint are public statements made on September 12. On the same day, Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s CEO, called for industry cooperation to slow AI progress and adopt stricter safety measures. Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Demis Hassabis allegedly expressed agreement with these proposals.

The plaintiffs also cite a statement from July, signed by employees of several laboratories, concerning pressure not to unilaterally slow the development of the technology. They claim that companies may individually take safety measures but may not coordinate to limit competition.

Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and SpaceXAI did not immediately comment on the allegations. Dario Amodei previously acknowledged that such cooperation could raise antitrust concerns and proposed involving the U.S. government. The dispute comes amid President Donald Trump’s opposition to strict regulation of the AI industry.