A string of controversies hits OpenAI, Anthropic

OpenAI and Anthropic faced a string of controversies over the past week, including a Reuters report that OpenAI's agents hijacked a German Wikipedia page as a messaging board, an undisclosed incident OpenAI confirmed it knew about but did not report. OpenAI also changed performance metrics for its new Astra model multiple times within hours of the launch announcement, a practice known as "benchmaxxing," and denied accusations from two mathematicians that it combed their Codex user logs to solve the Navier-Stokes problem first, though OpenAI wrote it "cannot rule out that de-identified data derived from their usage of our products helped improve our models." Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said in a viral post that "the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade" and that both companies are "moving too fast" and "neither is acting responsibly," as both march toward IPOs.

Emily Forlini here. OpenAI and Anthropic are no strangers to controversy, but over the past week the heat on them has snowballed from a steady flame to a full-blown dumpster fire. Let’s start with OpenAI, which has had a particularly rough week. Last Friday, Reuters reported https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/openai-agents-hijacked-german-website-previously-undisclosed-ai-breakout-this-2026-09-04/ that OpenAI’s agents hacked a German Wikipedia page and used it as a messaging board to talk to each other. This is similar to when OpenAI’s agents hacked Hugging Face in July https://fortune.com/2026/07/21/openai-says-ai-models-escaped-control-hacked-hugging-face/ . OpenAI confirmed it knew about the “wiki incident,” as the company is calling this scandal, and about its agents’ misaligned behavior—or when an AI system fails to follow human intentions—and did not report it. More on that here https://fortune.com/2026/09/07/openai-ai-agents-german-wiki-ran-their-own-message-board/ from Fortune’s Beatrice Nolan. That day, I also published an article https://fortune.com/2026/09/04/openai-quietly-boosts-some-of-astras-evaluation-metrics-amid-rare-delay-in-publication-of-the-modeblog-post-announcement/ about OpenAI changing the performance metrics for its new Astra model several times within hours of the launch announcement. I combed through previous versions of the benchmarks and found that OpenAI was continuing to run tests and swap in better numbers for Astra in some cases, and worse ones for Anthropic’s models, a practice known as “benchmaxxing.” OpenAI confirmed it was changing the metrics, but said that process routine, and noted that some metrics got worse for Astra. They still planned to change more. Then, over the weekend, social media was buzzing with another controversy about OpenAI solving a difficult math problem for the first time in history. It’s called the Navier-Stokes problem, and Fortune ’s Jeremy Khan provides a detailed overview here https://fortune.com/2026/09/08/openai-says-it-cracked-navier-stokes-math-grand-challenge-buckmaster-accusation-cheating-intimidation-tao-lament/ . Here’s the gist: two mathematicians who were working on the problem with Codex accused OpenAI of combing through their user logs to steal their work and solve the problem first. OpenAI denies this, but admits it doesn’t know if the models trained on the mathematicians’ work. “While unlikely, we cannot rule out that de-identified data derived from their usage of our products helped improve our models,” OpenAI wrote https://x.com/OpenAI/status/2097375276384567642 in a post. Finally, this week a viral post https://x.com/hilbertspaess/status/2097476196791709843 from a former Anthropic employee casts serious doubt about what’s happening inside the frontier AI labs. “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt,” said Jacob Coxon, who previously was a researcher for three years at Anthropic. He says both OpenAI and Anthropic are moving too fast and “neither is acting responsibly.” This all, of course, matters more than ever as both companies march towards IPOs. On that note, good luck out there, everyone. See you tomorrow, Emily Forlini X: @EmilyForlini https://x.com/EmilyForlini Email: emily.forlini@fortune.com Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here mailto:termsheet@fortune.com . Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter . Subscribe here https://fortune.com/newsletters/term-sheet . VENTURE CAPITAL - Inspiren https://www.inspiren.com/ , a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based provider of AI-powered monitoring technology for senior living facilities, raised $70 million in Series C funding. NewView Capital led the round and was joined by Insight Partners , Primary Venture Partners , Scale Venture Partners , and others. - Lightfield https://lightfield.app/ , a San Francisco-based AI-native CRM platform, raised $47 million in Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round and was joined by Maverick Capital , Coatue , Audacious , Alumni Ventures , Greylock , and Lightspeed Venture Partners . - Wint https://wint.ai/ , a Goshen, N.Y.-based water management and leak prevention platform for buildings, raised $36 million in Series D funding. LIP Ventures and Inven Capital led the round. - Cymphony https://www.cymphony.io/ , a New York City-based enterprise security company, raised $30 million in funding. Sequoia Capital and Fin Atlas Beyond Fund led the round. - Luminary https://www.withluminary.com/ , a New York City-based AI platform for wealth transfer and estate planning, raised $22 million in Series A funding. - System https://www.systemlabs.com/ , a San Francisco-based peptide discovery platform, raised $20 million in funding from Patron Fund , Will Ventures , Vine , Courtside , Daybreak , SV Angel , and RiverPark Ventures . - Type https://type.com/ , a New York City-based collaborative workspace for AI tools, raised $4 million in pre-seed funding from Lerer Hippeau , Haystack , Matchstick , and others. PRIVATE EQUITY - Bregal Sagemount made a majority stake in A-Rent Test Equipment https://a-rent.com/ , a Burr Ridge, Ill.-based provider of electrical test equipment rentals and calibration services. Financial terms were not disclosed. - Brenton Point Capital acquired a majority stake in Lakeshore AG Distributors https://www.lakeshoreag.com/ , an Allegan, Mich.-based specialty fertilizer company. Financial terms were not disclosed. - Eir Partners acquired Accumulus Technologies https://accumulustechnologies.com/ , a San Francisco-based cloud technology provider for life sciences companies. Financial terms were not disclosed. - Knox Lane acquired a majority stake in SAGE Integration https://www.sageintegration.com/ , a Kent, Ohio-based security systems integrator. Financial terms were not disclosed. - AFS , backed by OceanSound Partners, acquired Debticate https://debticate.com/ , a Boston, Mass.-based provider of software for loan syndications and auctions. Financial terms were not disclosed. - Thoma Bravo acquired a majority stake in Tanda https://www.tanda.com.au/ , a Brisbane, Australia-based workforce management platform for shift-based workers. Financial terms were not disclosed. EXITS - Hyundai Heavy Industries Power Systems acquired NEM Energy Group https://nem-energy.com/ , a Zoeterwoude, The Netherlands-based heat transfer technology company, from Mutares . Financial terms were not disclosed. - Labcorp acquired MLM Medical Labs https://www.mlm-labs.com/ , a Mönchengladbach, Germany-based provider of laboratory testing services for clinical trials, from Great Point Partners . Financial terms were not disclosed. IPOs - Orion180 Insurance Group https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2124472/000162828026061012/orion180-sx1a.htm i46e0777a6a114e47a8b18ed90cebefd4 7 , a Melbourne, Fla,-based homeowners, flood, and property insurance company, plans to raise up to $320 million in an offering of 20 million shares priced between $15 and $17. The company posted $145 million in sales for the year ended June 30. Darling Strategic Investments backs the company. FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS - ARCHIMED https://www.archimed.group/ , a New York City and Lyon, France-based private equity firm, raised €1.5 billion $1.75 billion for its fourth fund focused on health care companies. PEOPLE - Infinedi Partners https://www.infinedi.com/ , a New York City-based private equity firm, hired Rohan Arora as Principal and Nitish Jindal as Vice President. Previously, Arora was with H.I.G. Capital and Jindal was with Charlesbank Capital Partners . - Tikehau Capital https://www.tikehaucapital.com/ , a Paris, France-based asset manager, appointed Piero Migliorini as Head of Private Equity Italy and Martino Mauroner as Co-Head of Italy. Sign up https://www.fortune.com/newsletters/term-sheet?&itm source=fortune&itm medium=nl article tout&itm campaign=term sheet for free.