Trump Rejects AI Slowdown as Manchin Seeks IPO Freeze

A proposed freeze on artificial-intelligence initial public offerings would not stop a single model from training, but it would strike at the industry’s next source of liquidity. Former Sen. Joe Manchin is asking President Donald Trump to pause new AI listings until Congress establishes safety rules, putting the debate over frontier models directly in front of public-market investors.

Trump is taking the opposite position. Speaking in Ireland on Sunday, September 13, he said the United States is ahead of China in AI and argued that slowing development would surrender a strategic advantage. “Whoever wins AI wins,” he told reporters. The president later dismissed safety concerns as part of what he called a “sick conspiracy” against AI and data centers.

The timing is awkward for the companies involved. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called for a slower pace of AI research, common safety standards and independent monitors inside the leading labs. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backed the proposal, while Elon Musk also endorsed Amodei’s warning. Their message is that capabilities are advancing faster than companies, governments and international institutions can reliably test them.

Manchin’s proposal takes a different route. Rather than restricting model development directly, an executive order freezing AI IPOs would use access to public capital as leverage. That could delay offerings from private companies, reduce exit opportunities for venture investors and force firms to keep financing enormous computing bills through private rounds, strategic investors and debt.

OpenAI has already said it will not go public in 2026, according to reports citing Altman. Anthropic, meanwhile, remains among the private AI companies watched most closely by investors for a potential listing. A broad freeze would therefore matter less as an immediate trading event than as a signal that Washington is willing to impose market restrictions before it has settled the underlying safety framework.

Wall Street’s response has been selective. AI-related shares sold off as investors absorbed the slowdown warnings, but the broader investment thesis has not collapsed. Microsoft’s Azure growth and massive commercial backlog continue to offer public evidence that customers are buying AI infrastructure and software now.

That leaves investors watching two clocks. Washington is debating safeguards. The industry is spending as if the race cannot wait.