Anthropic and OpenAI publicly welcomed Australia's move to introduce new AI regulations, a stance that might seem odd for firms that have thrived on a largely unregulated environment. The reasoning is commercial rather than altruistic: both companies are still privately owned but preparing for eventual stock market listings, and clear, predictable rules can make them more attractive to investors by showing they are managing regulatory risk. The timing is notable, as both firms have just seen their implied market values slide sharply after being outpaced by a Chinese rival.

Analysts on IG's trading platform cut Anthropic's implied valuation by US$232bn to US$1.56tn and OpenAI's by US$160bn to US$1.16tn after Moonshot AI launched its Kimi K3 model, seen as competitive with Western rivals and more open to user customisation. Anthropic also settled a US$1.5bn lawsuit with authors, agreeing to pay roughly US$3,000 each for around 500,000 scraped books, with Australia's assistant technology minister Andrew Charlton among those affected. Charlton argues the new rules will let creatives control whether their work trains AI models while giving investors clarity, a view echoed by Morningstar's Malik Ahmed Khan, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hopes Australia's approach, as with its under-16s social media ban, will influence regulation globally.