A memorandum drafted by a Trump political adviser has singled out Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei as a leading representative of artificial intelligence “doomsday” thinking. The document, which the adviser prepared outside any official White House role, places Amodei and his sister, Anthropic President Daniela Amodei, at the center of what it calls an AI “doomsday pipeline.”

The memo frames effective altruism as a fringe, cult-like movement disconnected from mainstream American values. It links the philosophy to positions on abortion, veganism and the idea of extending civil-rights-style protections to digital minds. According to the document, Amodei prioritizes “foreigners over citizens, shrimp over families, future hypothetical people over the living.” A source close to the administration described Amodei’s approach as the embodiment of an ideology and globalist stance that runs counter to the president’s America First agenda.

Anthropic staffers are characterized in the memo as Biden-era liberals, Democrats and “strange Californians.” The text refers to the Amodei siblings as forming “the Anthropic knot” or “Anthropic nodes.”

Escalating Political Friction

The memorandum arrives amid repeated friction between the Trump administration and Anthropic’s leadership. On September 14, President Trump publicly criticized Amodei on Truth Social after the CEO published an essay two days earlier calling for frontier AI labs to slow development. Trump accused Amodei of “pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’” and argued that the only necessary safeguard is “a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.”

Vice President JD Vance expressed skepticism that AI companies’ requests for regulation amount to a Trojan horse. Trump’s AI adviser David Sacks has publicly described fears of existential AI risk as overblown. White House officials previously canceled a proposed meeting between the president and Amodei, with a senior official stating that Amodei was “a little too weird” for the president.

Anthropic had already faced a supply-chain designation earlier in the year. On September 23, Amodei told a United Nations Security Council briefing that advanced AI could pose “a risk to humanity as a whole” and said the company would be willing to slow development. White House science adviser Michael Kratsios used the same session to criticize international AI governance efforts as a “globalist scheme.”

Anthropic Rejects Effective Altruism Label

Anthropic has repeatedly sought to distance itself from effective altruism. In a 2025 interview, Daniela Amodei stated that she does not identify with the terminology. Dario Amodei has said in multiple interviews that he is not a member of the movement and has pointed to artificial intelligence’s potential benefits. Early Anthropic employee Amanda Askell, who helped shape the company’s Claude model constitution, has stated that effective altruism is “not a theme of the organization.”

Despite these statements, the political focus on Amodei’s safety-oriented public positions continues to intensify as midterm elections approach. Trump allies view the Anthropic CEO as a ready target for messaging that contrasts MAGA priorities with certain Silicon Valley viewpoints.

IPO Timing Adds Pressure

The political scrutiny arrives at a sensitive moment for Anthropic’s finances. The company has shifted its planned public listing from October to November. Backers have discussed a valuation near $2 trillion and a potential capital raise of as much as $100 billion. Anthropic’s most recent private funding round valued the firm at approximately $965 billion.

In an earlier prediction market tracking which artificial-intelligence company would announce or confirm an IPO first, traders assigned Anthropic a 75 percent probability compared with 22 percent for OpenAI, with trading volume of $278,366. No listing has been confirmed.

Other industry figures have aligned with parts of Amodei’s safety stance. Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have agreed on the need to pace frontier development. OpenAI’s global policy chief Chris Lehane said the company had been collaborating with Anthropic and Google DeepMind on AI safety measures and supports independent verification requirements for frontier labs under proposed legislation.

Investors watching the potential record-setting IPO now face the added factor of political risk tied to Anthropic’s high-profile safety advocacy and the targeting of its chief executive.