Leaked Memo: Anthropic CEO Says the Company Will Pursue Gulf State Investments After All
WIRED
Internal Slack message to Anthropic staff, obtained by WIRED
“This is a real downside and I'm not thrilled about it... Unfortunately, I think 'No bad person should ever benefit from our success' is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on.”
Dario Amodei20 July 2025- What you'll lose0/5
Nothing taken from the public.
- Condescension1/5
Candid, to his staff.
- Tone-deafness4/5
'No bad person should ever benefit' is 'a pretty difficult principle to run a business on'.
- Doom0/5
None.
- Hypocrisy3/5
In 2024 Anthropic ruled out Saudi money, citing national security.
Full time8 pitchforksof a possible 25
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The occasion
Internal Slack message to Anthropic staff, obtained by WIRED, 20 July 2025.
Context
WIRED obtained a Slack message Amodei sent to staff on a Sunday morning (WIRED published Monday 2025-07-21, so Sunday is 2025-07-20) saying Anthropic would seek investment from the UAE and Qatar, and acknowledging that this would likely enrich "dictators". He argued that access to Gulf capital, "easily $100B or more", was needed to stay on the frontier. Internal remarks that leaked.
Crowd reaction
Critical commentary
Futurism's headline said the leak showed the CEO of an "Ethical AI" startup saying it is "okay to benefit dictators" and wrote that Anthropic, "which has long touted itself as a more ethical alternative to the likes of OpenAI", was "giving in to the temptation of accepting Gulf State money", adding that the reversal came after Amodei cited national security concerns for refusing Saudi funds the year before.