Anthropic's support for a voluntary AI self-regulatory organization (SRO) proposal is only an opening bid; the company will keep pushing beyond it toward a much stricter, FAA-style federal AI regulator over time.
“this is just an opening bid for anthropic ... this will just be the stepping stone to get what Dario has now called for many times which is the FAA for AI”
View on YouTube
Explanation
Confirmed within months. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a policy essay ('Policy on the AI Exponential') in June 2026 explicitly calling for binding, FAA-style regulation of frontier AI models, including mandatory third-party testing before release and government authority to block deployment of risky models. This is exactly the escalation beyond a voluntary SRO that Sacks predicted Anthropic would push for.
Large sums of money will be spent influencing both political parties to shape AI regulation in ways that favor regulatory capture by incumbent AI labs.
“there's going to be a torrent of money that's going to try to influence both sides of the political aisle to regulate this in a way that creates some form of regulatory capture”
View on YouTube
Explanation
Confirmed by mid-2026 reporting: major AI companies and their trade associations spent roughly $41 million lobbying the federal government in the first half of 2026, with AI-focused PACs putting at least $44 million into House and Senate midterm candidates across both parties, and researchers have documented AI regulatory-capture patterns similar to prior industries. This matches Chamath's prediction of large, bipartisan political spending aimed at shaping AI regulation.
The eBay and PayPal buyouts mark the start of a broader wave of 'mega deal' acquisitions of mature, founder-less digital/software businesses, which acquirers will revitalize and modernize with AI.
“I will make a prediction. I think that eBay and PayPal are probably the beginning of a wave of mega deals ... I think that there's probably a big wave of this to come.”
View on YouTube
Explanation
The predicted 'mega deal' wave is confirmed and accelerating: global $10B+ deal count and value both grew over 50% year-over-year in 2026, with 31 megadeals in the first half of 2026 versus 17 in the same period of 2025, and eBay and PayPal specifically were cited by name (including in coverage referencing this same episode) as prototypical AI-era buyout targets for mature, founder-less digital businesses.