Cramer Hyped Anthropic’s IPO, Then Its Own Researcher Put 10% Odds on AI Killing Us
Jim Cramer spent Tuesday night hyping what could be a landmark AI IPO, then spent Wednesday morning explaining why a safety researcher at that same company just made him want nothing to do with it.
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Fewer than 14 hours separated Jim Cramer’s two takes on Anthropic. On Tuesday night’s Mad Money, he told viewers the private AI lab “could be a gigantic IPO and investors will sell all sorts of other stocks in order to raise money to participate.” Wednesday morning on Squawk on the Street, he was comparing the odds quoted by one of Anthropic’s own safety researchers to a surgery no sane patient would agree to.
Surgery Analogy That Reframes the IPO Pitch
Cramer’s on-air reaction, per CNBC’s Sept. 9 broadcast: “If you ever been in a situation where you want a surgery and the surgery electrosurgery is more than 5%, 5% fatality. No, you don’t do it…10% is twice 5%. So when I read that, I said, well, you know, I don’t like those odds. Those odds are just plain bad.” He followed with, “I’m very surprised that this man still works for Dario, for Anthropic.” Cramer posted a shorter version on X at 9:42 a.m.: “10% chance we’re all gonna die from AI? (anthropic exec) Don’t like the odds.”
The number came from Anthropic safety researcher Evan Hubinger, who publicly wrote he sees “a greater than 10% chance of that happening” in the context of AI killing people. Separately, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned and posted that Anthropic and OpenAI are “racing straight to self-improving, superintelligence and gambling with our lives.”
Why the Whiplash Matters for Cramer’s Broader AI Book
Anthropic remains private and has no filed S-1 with the SEC, so Cramer’s IPO talk is speculation about a deal rather than a scheduled offering. That matters because his April view had already floated a $1 trillion outcome, and on Sept. 3 he tied Broadcom’s bull case to the same lab, framing it as “Anthropic or bust.” If a private-market safety debate delays or shrinks that IPO, the ripple hits public names investors actually own.
Public-Market AI Proxies Trading Today
Meta (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) is the mega-cap answer. On July 29, 2026, Meta posted Q2 revenue of $60.80 billion, up 27.96% year-over-year, while diluted EPS of $6.18 missed the $7.2214 consensus by 14.42%. Capital expenditures hit $30.116 billion in the quarter, and free cash flow collapsed to $784 million. Full-year capex guidance now sits at $130-145 billion, funding an aggressive AI buildout described by CEO Mark Zuckerberg as “accelerating our core business today, powering our next generation of products, and opening the door to entirely new enterprise opportunities.” Details are in Meta’s Q2 2026 8-K exhibit. On Sept. 9, Meta traded up 5.7% in the morning and is up 12.1% in a week on its Muse AI agent launch. The stock ignored the safety headlines.
Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB) shows the applied side. Q2 2026 revenue was $3.608 billion, up 16.54%, with GAAP EPS of $1.27. Airbnb’s AI assistant now resolves ~45% of customer support issues without a human agent, pushing support cost per booking down ~16% YoY, and nearly 60% of engineer-produced code is AI-coauthored. Shares traded at 169.42 late morning Sept. 9, down 2.93% on the session and 7.19% over the week, though still up 24.83% year to date.
What to Watch Next
Three items: whether Anthropic files actual IPO paperwork (as of today it has not), whether more Anthropic staff go public with p(doom) numbers, and whether Meta’s capex trajectory into $130-145 billion for the year keeps drawing bids while free cash flow compresses. All of that buildout still has to be powered, cooled, and networked by somebody, and we profiled seven of those suppliers in a free AI infrastructure report. The private-market safety debate at Anthropic and the public-market AI trade are the same story pointed at different audiences.
Data Sources
- CNBC Squawk on the Street, Sept. 9, 2026: Cramer’s surgery analogy, Coxon and Hubinger quotes.
- Custom user briefing: Cramer X post timing, Meta premarket move, Sept. 3 “Anthropic or bust” framing.
- Meta Q2 2026 8-K exhibit on SEC.gov: revenue, EPS miss, capex, free cash flow.
- Airbnb Q2 2026 earnings data: revenue, EPS, AI support metrics, buyback capacity.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Jake has been been working in financial media for almost 15 years. He focuses on all things personal finance for 24/7 Wall St. with high hopes to educate and entertain. Most recently, Jake spent 12 years working various roles at The Motley Fool. He started copy editing fool.com content, worked on premium and marketing campaigns, and helped launch The Ascent, a personal finance brand.
His work has been featured on platforms like MSN, Yahoo Finance, USA Today, and more. He's written about credit cards, social security, ETFs, savings accounts, and just about anything else you can imagine when thinking about money. Jake love to cook, play golf, and tell people he's never had a cavity. (It's true!)
