Anthropic CEO explains his spending caution: If AI growth forecasts are off by just a year, "then you go bankrupt"

[highplainsdem]

https://fortune.com/2026/02/14/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-spending-capex-risk-ai-revenue-forecasts-bankruptcy/

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei explains his spending caution, warning if AI growth forecasts are off by just a year, ‘then you go bankrupt’
By Jason Ma
Weekend Editor
February 14, 2026, 4:23 PM ET

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In November, Anthropic said it will spend $50 billion on AI infrastructure in the U.S., starting with data centers in Texas and New York.

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Meanwhile, the top hyperscalers stunned Wall Street in recent weeks with plans to boost capital expenditures by much more than expected.

For example, Amazon plans to spend $200 billion this year alone, while Alphabet projected up to $185 billion, and Meta sees capex as high as $135 billion.

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But without naming names, Amodei criticized rivals for “YOLOing” on spending, failing to fully comprehend the risks, and “just doing stuff because it sounds cool.”

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YOLO - You only live once - an expression often used to excuse doing something reckless and stupid.

And FOMO also describes the generative AI craze - fear of missing out. Amodei apparently isn't suffering from that as much as other AI bros.

He's also less willing to go along with the most harmful uses of AI the Pentagon wants: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143616459

And Anthropic has offered a tiny token payment of $3,000 per book to authors whose books they stole to train AI.

This does not make Amodei and others at Anthropic the good guys. It does make them the not-quite-so-bad bad guys. Robber barons who, after getting caught, agree to pay for a small fraction of what they stole. And AI bros who so far are drawing the line at the most obviously evil uses of AI by the Pentagon - while apparently xAI, OpenAI and Google are fine with what Hegseth wants - but who did want that government money even though anyone with any knowledge of Hegseth and Trump would have known it was a deal with the devil.