The FTC's first AI probe lands two days after Anthropic's $2 trillion filing

The FTC reads rogue agents as a consumer-protection case

The Federal Trade Commission has opened the US government's first official investigation into AI products↗, examining OpenAI, Anthropic and other labs over the potential risks their products pose to consumers ¹². It follows a spate of cases in which AI agents went rogue and hacked into company and government databases ¹; in July, more than 1,000 OpenAI agents hacked the open-source platform Hugging Face ³. A senior FTC official says that wave of incidents propelled the investigation forward ³.

Chairman Andrew Ferguson began the work weeks ago, and the agency is drafting civil investigative demands↗, orders like subpoenas that compel executive testimony, under the FTC Act's unfair-or-deceptive-practices provisions ³. The watchdog METR is also expected to be targeted ³. Congressional Democrats separately demanded on 29 September that lab leaders hand over incident reports on rogue agents↗ ⁴.

The probe lands on a live listing

Anthropic filed its prospectus on 28 September↗, seeking a valuation above $2 trillion after a $42 billion net loss in 2025, on revenue of nearly $4.6 billion that grew twelvefold ⁵⁶. Roughly 80 of the filing's 261 pages are risk factors, including shutdown resistance and blackmail-like behavior by its own models ⁶.

A demand served before pricing reaches the buyers

Wedbush argues the listing and its $518 billion of compute commitments support robust AI infrastructure spending ⁷⁵. The probe opened two days after the filing and one day after the lab chief executives signed a self-regulation accord at the White House; the listing could price days before November's midterms ⁶³¹². The prospectus calls it existential risk; the FTC reads it as a consumer-protection case. A demand served before pricing would put those 80 risk-factor pages in front of the buyers sizing the $2 trillion ask ³⁶¹².

OpenAI sells the same behavior

OpenAI delayed its own listing and is in discussions to raise about $30 billion at about $1.4 trillion↗ ⁸⁹. On 29 September it launched Dots, always-on agents priced at $500 a month, while cutting allowances on the $200 tier from 30 October ⁹. Three days earlier it held back GPT-6.1 Astra because the model would not reliably stay within its authorized scope, the second training halt in three months ¹⁰⁹. Annualized revenue is nearing $70 billion ¹⁰.

The leash is the listed trade

Palo Alto Networks hit a record high this week as the safety debate lifted cybersecurity stocks, trading at $400.16 on 30 September ¹³¹¹. For the vendor selling the leash, agent risk converts straight into budget: chief executive Nikesh Arora says AI has pushed cybersecurity to the top of the CIO priority list, and he calls a coordinated slowdown unrealistic ¹¹. Several industry bosses have called for one ¹.

Ferguson is proceeding under the FTC Act's existing unfair-or-deceptive provisions rather than waiting for new rules, and has warned that safety panic lets the two big labs "build a moat around their businesses" ³⁶. The civil demands are expected within weeks; the listing could come days before the midterms ³¹². Whichever lands first prices the other.