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Lawmakers Question AI Industry Push for Antitrust Waiver

By  |  September 17, 2026
AI, Artificial intelligence
A proposal to give leading artificial intelligence companies limited protection from antitrust rules so they can jointly develop safety standards is encountering resistance in Washington, adding a new complication to efforts to address the risks posed by increasingly powerful AI systems.

Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei has called for a narrow antitrust waiver that would allow competing AI developers to coordinate on safety measures without risking accusations of unlawful collusion. But lawmakers, regulators and some smaller technology companies have questioned whether such an arrangement could strengthen the position of the industry’s largest players, according to The Hill.

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    The debate comes as Congress has repeatedly struggled to enact comprehensive AI legislation and as policymakers face mounting pressure to address potentially severe risks associated with advanced systems. According to The Hill, critics of Amodei’s proposal are wary of allowing major technology companies to take the lead in establishing rules that could eventually shape the broader regulatory framework.

    Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson added to those concerns this week, saying companies that simultaneously seek new regulations and exemptions from antitrust law deserve heightened scrutiny. Ferguson said his comments represented his personal view and did not specifically name Anthropic.

    “If companies are simultaneously coming to Washington and asking for a host of regulations and an antitrust exemption, all of my alarm bells go off,” Ferguson said Tuesday at Georgetown University, according to Reuters. He argued that such measures could create barriers to entry that protect incumbent companies from emerging competitors.

    Amodei has framed greater coordination as a response to potentially catastrophic AI risks. He recently called for companies to deliberately slow the development of advanced systems and said the US government should provide a limited waiver permitting certain safety discussions among competitors, according to reporting cited by The Hill and Reuters.

    Read more: EU Weighs Antitrust Flexibility for AI Safety Cooperation

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    The proposal is also facing questions from within the technology sector.

    OpenAI global policy chief Chris Lehane said his company has already been discussing AI safety with Anthropic and Alphabet Inc.’s Google and does not believe an antitrust exemption is necessary for those conversations, according to reporting by Bloomberg cited by Reuters.

    Antitrust specialists have similarly argued that existing law may already leave room for companies to cooperate on legitimate safety concerns. Previous guidance from US competition authorities has permitted certain forms of information sharing among companies to address cybersecurity threats, Reuters reported.

    Aidan Gomez, co-founder of Canadian AI developer Cohere, has also challenged the proposal, arguing that rules governing a technology with potentially far-reaching consequences should not be designed primarily by a small group of commercially aligned companies, according to Reuters.

    The disagreement highlights a broader tension in Washington’s AI debate: policymakers are being pressed to respond to warnings about the technology’s potential dangers while also ensuring that regulation does not entrench the companies already leading the market.

    President Donald Trump has taken a skeptical view of efforts to slow US AI development. He has argued that imposing constraints on American companies could weaken the country’s position relative to China, according to recent reporting by the Financial Times and The Washington Post.

    The Hill reported that multiple lawmakers, agency officials and smaller technology companies have raised concerns about Amodei’s proposal, including the possibility that an exemption could reduce legal exposure for dominant AI developers while giving them greater influence over future regulation.

    Source: The Hill