FTC Lawsuit Alleges Pact Among Major AI Companies to Slow Technological Progress

The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit on September 18, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The complaint alleges that Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceX, and Google formed a pact to slow the rate of improvement in their competing artificial intelligence technologies. The lawsuit claims this agreement to reduce product quality and restrict output violates the Sherman Act, which prohibits agreements among competitors to restrain trade.

The action targets the core business models of major AI companies by alleging they conspired to limit market competition. The suit claims that such an agreement to slow technological advancement is a form of restraint of trade that the Sherman Act condemns. The outcome could expose the companies to significant regulatory scrutiny and potential operational limitations.