Speaker · Updated
Mark Levine: latest market views
New York City Office of the Comptroller
Summary
Mark Levine is the New York City Comptroller (in office since January 2026), serving as investment adviser and a trustee to the city's pension funds, which hold more than $325 billion in assets.
Chorus has 6 views from Mark Levine across 2 episodes on Bloomberg Talks and Squawk Pod (CNBC Squawk Box) since October 15, 2026. Their latest calls: bearish on Anthropic.
Where they stand
Their latest bullish or bearish call on each company.
- AnthropicBearish ·
What they talk about most
The latest views
Newest first. Every quote is checked against the episode's transcript.
AnthropicUncertain
Anthropic should delay its IPO to address safety risks before public shareholder pressure builds.
Levine argues Anthropic's S-1 itself describes the technology as a potential existential threat to humanity and does not claim to have solved that problem, which makes an IPO risky for investors. He says an IPO would be the most all-consuming thing for leadership, distracting from safety work, and that public-company pressure for growth and profits would keep pushing against it. He wants the company to do the safety work, mitigate risk and let investors know it can be confident before listing. He says a catastrophic safety incident after listing would be terrible for the stock and could reverberate through markets, while acknowledging the counterargument that delaying could itself trigger a market problem if valuations are frothy. He is not opposed to frontier AI companies going public eventually, only to doing it when it is safe. He lacks answers on safety tripwires, capability thresholds for bio and cyber risks, and whether any governance structure could stop a release under competitive pressure.
“An IPO is about the most all consuming thing that corporate leadership could go through. It will dominate their lives. It will distract from the safety work.”at 1:25
Bloomberg Talks: New York City Comptroller Mark Levine Talks Anthropic IPO ·
The White House AI accord is a step forward but nonbinding, with no timeline, leaving key safety gaps.
Levine acknowledges the White House accord as progress, noting that a few years ago it would have been seen as a big deal. He argues it is not enough because it is nonbinding and has no timeline, so the company could take years to implement it. He says it leaves out key questions other investors are asking, including what safety tripwires exist, what capability thresholds are being watched for bio and cyber risks, and whether any governance structure would let someone halt a release despite competitive pressure.
“We have the White House accord a step forward... But it is nonbinding. There's no timeline. So what? They have ten years to implement it? And it leaves a lot out”at 2:51
Bloomberg Talks: New York City Comptroller Mark Levine Talks Anthropic IPO ·
Index providers' fast-tracked inclusion of new IPOs like SpaceX sets a terrible precedent for investors.
Levine says index providers, including the Russell index his pension funds track, have dropped the old seasoning period and float thresholds for newly listed companies, and the SpaceX listing set a terrible precedent. Previously investors could watch volatility, check whether insiders were dumping shares, and assess the company before it entered indexes. Now a company could be listed within days or about five business days, with no time to assess concerns such as safety. Because so many investors now hold passive index strategies, they are pushed to buy in without that scrutiny. Levine says his pension funds are pushing back hard on the index providers.
“What they did with SpaceX now is set a terrible precedent. Remember we used to have a period of seasoning? ... That's thrown out the window now and it could potentially be days, business days, like five business days before this is listed.”at 5:15
Bloomberg Talks: New York City Comptroller Mark Levine Talks Anthropic IPO ·
AnthropicBearish
Anthropic admits it builds technology posing existential risk without having solved the safety problem.
Levine argues that Anthropic has acknowledged that it is building a technology that poses an existential risk. He notes that the admission is in the company's S-1 filing and says Anthropic does not claim to have solved that problem. He uses this to argue for federal AI regulation and against an IPO that he says will distract the company from safety. This is a teaser excerpt, and the full case may appear later in the episode.
“By their own admission, they're building a technology which poses an existential risk. Those are not my words. They're reportedly in the s one. They do not claim to have solved that problem.”at 1:45
Squawk Pod (CNBC Squawk Box): AI Jitters, NYC’s Quest to Delay Anthropic IPO 10/15/26 ·
AnthropicUncertain
Anthropic should delay its IPO because going public will distract it from safety work and add growth pressure.
Levine argues Anthropic's own S-1 says it is building technology that poses an existential risk and that it has not solved that problem. An IPO is an all-consuming process that will distract leadership from safety work. Once public, the company faces pressure for growth and profits that will push against safety. Competitive pressure to rush products to market, both domestically and from China, is greater for a public company. Levine's pension funds track the indexes with over $120 billion in passive funds, and those indexes will rush Anthropic in with no seasoning period. He therefore sees the pension funds as future shareholders and wants more transparency and guardrails first. The fund's current private stake is under $10 million, and he expects to be a much larger, activist shareholder.
“This will undoubtedly distract them from the safety work. Once they are then public, they are gonna have new pressures on growth and profits that are gonna push against the safety work.”at 40:24
Squawk Pod (CNBC Squawk Box): AI Jitters, NYC’s Quest to Delay Anthropic IPO 10/15/26 ·
The US needs binding federal AI regulation, like an FDA for drugs; the current White House memo is toothless.
Levine argues that the federal government has shown no leadership on AI, and the only current measure is a nonbinding White House memo with no enforcement mechanism and no timeline. He wants an FDA-style regulator for new AI technologies, modeled on the one for prescription drugs. He says the market is effectively a duopoly at the frontier, with OpenAI having already postponed its IPO and Anthropic rushing toward its own. The first step, in his view, is to get those two companies' safety under control. Investors need to know the tripwires, meaning the capability thresholds for cyber, bio and exfiltration risks, and the governance structure that can halt a deployment despite competitive pressure.
“We absolutely need federal regulation. We need an FDA that we have for prescription drugs for these new technologies. What we have now is a nonbinding White House memo with no enforcement mechanism and no timeline.”at 44:02
Squawk Pod (CNBC Squawk Box): AI Jitters, NYC’s Quest to Delay Anthropic IPO 10/15/26 ·
Shows
- Bloomberg Talks · 1 episode
- Squawk Pod (CNBC Squawk Box) · 1 episode
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