Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, has delivered a strong warning to U.S. lawmakers about the risks associated with exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China. In discussions with Axios co-founders Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, Amodei made an analogy describing such exports as equivalent to selling nuclear weapons to North Korea, highlighting the strategic danger of providing powerful AI hardware to an authoritarian regime.
Amodei emphasized that the United States currently holds a critical advantage in semiconductor technology, describing it as a “decisive but fleeting” lead. He urged policymakers to capitalize fully on this edge by instituting a total blockade on the semiconductor supply chain directed to regimes like China’s Communist Party. “We need to cut off the supply chain,” he said. “We’re years ahead of them in chips. We really can cut off the supply chain. And that gives us the time and the buffer to deal with these dangers properly.”
His statements followed a recent essay in which he warned that the emergence of AI systems capable of computational speeds hundreds of times that of human thought would enable a new scale of geopolitical power. Selling the hardware necessary to assemble such systems to China, he argued, is as strategically reckless as providing nuclear armaments, noting the futility of asserting domestic manufacturing credentials in the face of such clear threats.
Beyond international concerns, Amodei highlighted potential domestic instability arising from AI adoption. He forecast that up to 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs could be displaced within one to five years as AI automates substantial parts of knowledge work. This “white-collar bloodbath,” in his words, risks exacerbating wealth concentration enormously, as AI company founders may accumulate unprecedented fortunes.
To address these inequities and prevent societal unrest, Amodei advocated for “robust tax policies” tailored to a future where AI’s economic influence deepens. He warned Congress that ignoring these challenges could provoke intense public backlash, saying, “You’re going to get a mob coming for you if you don’t do this in the right way.”
Urgency underscored all of Amodei's remarks. He stressed that regulatory windows are closing rapidly with AI models already demonstrating autonomous reasoning and coding capabilities. “Three years is an eternity in this field,” he remarked, anticipating that human-level artificial intelligence might arrive even before specific regulations are established.
Meanwhile, leading U.S. stock market benchmarks have seen moderate gains in 2026. Year-to-date increases stand at approximately 1.75% for the S&P 500, 1.28% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and 2.91% for the Nasdaq 100.
On the recent trading day, key ETFs reflected some positive movement. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, closed up 0.40% at $695.49. Simultaneously, the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), which mirrors the Nasdaq 100, advanced 0.91% to $631.13. Futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq 100 indices displayed mixed trends the following day.
These market movements occur amid heightened discussions about technological leadership and economic policies in the evolving AI landscape, underscoring the intertwining of technology risks and macroeconomic dynamics.