Naomi Klein and Ilana Glazer urged U.S. lawmakers to pass billionaire wealth-tax legislation and block artificial intelligence companies from going public, warning that IPOs could shift failure risks to ordinary savers.
In a Nov. 2 opinion column in The Guardian, the writers argued that IPOs can benefit founders and investors while exposing ordinary Americans to losses if the companies or their technology fail. They warned that losses could affect retirement accounts even when savers had no say over which stocks those accounts hold. That warning puts the distribution of risk at the center of their objection.
Klein and Glazer called for passage of billionaire wealth-tax legislation, starting in California and New York, as well as legal measures to block further technology IPOs. They link tax loopholes, corporate mergers and public offerings to the concentration of wealth and corporate power.
The column also cites the 2008 financial crisis, Theranos and SpaceX's June IPO as examples in the writers' case. Their proposed response addresses both wealth accumulation and companies' access to public markets.
Anthropic has filed publicly for a proposed offering. The company submitted a registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Oct. 26. The proposed sale awaits the SEC's decision to make the registration statement effective, and the filing sets no date for that step.
OpenAI said June 8 that it had submitted a draft registration statement confidentially and had not decided on timing. The company said the filing gives it the option to go public sooner if that proves best. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Fortune in September that the company would not go public in 2026.
The Guardian column provides no timetable for either company's IPO.
