Jim Cramer questioned the motives behind Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s weekend essay calling for a slower pace of AI development, while warning that any genuine slowdown in data center construction could weigh on Nvidia stock, according to CNBC.
Amodei published the essay Saturday under the title “We Must Pace the Frontier,” calling on AI companies to moderate the rate of capabilities development. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk of xAI both voiced support for the position, representing an unusual moment of alignment among the industry’s biggest figures.
Cramer called the essay “extremely self-serving” and laid out two theories about what Amodei was really after. The first: that lighter capital expenditures resulting from a slowdown could make Anthropic’s IPO prospectus look more attractive to investors. The second: that by inviting regulators to establish strict rules, Amodei is effectively building a barrier that would block newer, smaller AI startups from competing. “Aren’t they just pulling up the rope ladder for everyone else?” Cramer wrote.
David Sacks, co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the White House’s AI and crypto adviser, offered a counterpoint on X that Cramer cited as capturing the apparent contradiction. “Go ahead and pace the frontier. You are the ones setting it. The easiest way not to build superintelligence is for you to agree not to build it. Demanding your preferred regulatory framework as the price of that will look like blackmail of the public and the political system. So just do it,” Sacks wrote, as quoted by CNBC.
Cramer said the more immediate market concern is Nvidia, which he described as financially intertwined with companies that benefit from accelerating data center construction — a buildout now in doubt. Cramer warned that any drop in Nvidia shares would demand a serious response, adding that his charitable trust had already started pulling back from data center holdings. At the prior week’s CNBC Investing Club session, Cramer said Corning had been cut from the portfolio given the threat that politics could bring data center construction to a halt.
Cramer cited Oracle’s latest earnings call as a sign that markets had not yet priced in the consequences of a slowdown, leaving room for additional losses ahead.
AI-linked stocks declined Monday as Wall Street weighed the implications of the weekend statements. President Donald Trump rejected the slowdown argument on Sunday, saying any reduction in pace was unwarranted and would erode the United States’ competitive advantage over China.
