With AGI existential risk, its likely to happen on a much shorter timescale, and it seems likely you won't be able to buy your way out of it.
It is extremely rare for companies or their senior staff to beg for regulation this far in advance of any big push by legislators or the public.
The interpretation that this is some 3-D chess on the companies' part is a huge violation of Occam's Razor.
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I think the primary risk these folks are worried about is loss of control. And in turn, that's because they're all people for whom the system has more-or-less worked.
Poor people are worried the risk that the rich will keep the economic windfall to themselves and not share it.
AI is an existential threat to search engines like Google, social media (FB, Twitter), advertising networks, and other massive multinationals. Many other industries, including academia is threatened as well. They’d all rather strangle the AI baby in the crib now then let it grow up and threaten them.
They believe the only way it should be allowed to grow is under their benevolent control.