Google faces US antitrust lawsuit over slowing AI progress

Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceXAI were sued in a California federal court on Friday, 18 September. The lawsuit accuses the tech companies of forming an illegal agreement to coordinate a slowdown in the development of artificial intelligence, which plaintiffs claim violates US antitrust laws and harms paying consumers.

Lawyers representing four subscribers of Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok filed the case as a proposed class action on behalf of paid users across the United States. The plaintiffs focus on events from 12 September, when Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay urging industry rivals to cooperate on slowing AI advances to strengthen safety measures. On that same day, Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk publicly responded favorably to the proposal.

The lawsuit argues that an understanding among major rivals to move slower than normal competition allows produces anticompetitive harm. The existence of an illegal pact remains an unproven allegation by the plaintiffs. Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceXAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.

Amodei had acknowledged potential antitrust hurdles in his essay, suggesting that US government mediation or a limited safe harbor for safety talks would be helpful. Altman later stated that OpenAI backs a federal safety framework but saw no need to wait for antitrust clearance. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump rejected calls for new industry limits, calling restrictions part of a conspiracy, while Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri argued against granting antitrust exemptions that could allow major tech firms to stifle competition.