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Anthropic is proceeding with plans to go public despite recent market turmoil, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company intends to set a valuation range this week and begin trading by the end of next week, though some institutional investors are reportedly pressing for a lower valuation than the $1.5 trillion figure discussed last week, itself down from an earlier $2 trillion estimate.
A wave of local and state ballot proposals is emerging across the United States addressing the rapid growth of AI data centers, with some measures designed to streamline approval of new facilities and others aimed at blocking them outright. The split reflects growing political division over how communities should respond to the infrastructure demands of the AI boom.
Reports indicate that investors are taking out hedges to protect against potential downside risk tied to the ongoing boom in artificial intelligence stocks and investments. The move reflects growing caution among market participants even as AI-related valuations continue to climb.
Tyler Shultz, the whistleblower who exposed Theranos's faulty blood-testing technology, said in an interview with The San Francisco Standard that the current AI investment boom creates conditions ripe for deception similar to those exploited by Elizabeth Holmes. His comments come as a new documentary, 'You Can See Everything,' about Holmes's final weeks before prison becomes one of the highest-grossing documentaries ever. Shultz noted that Holmes turned casual investor meetings into hundred-million-dollar fundraising hauls, and argued that era of easy, unchecked capital should be over.
Anthropic has cultivated multiple public identities over the years—positioning itself as an AI safety organization, a commercial powerhouse, and a developer of superhuman AI. As the company moves toward a potential IPO, questions are emerging about which version of Anthropic will be presented to investors and the public. Separately, researchers and companies are developing solid-state transformers, an update to century-old grid technology, to help the US power grid handle rising electricity demand from EVs, data centers, and AI infrastructure.
Anthropic has filed to go public in a deal that could rank among the largest IPOs ever, with investors reportedly valuing the Claude maker in the trillions of dollars. The filing comes as the five-year-old company posted over $80 billion in losses for the first half of the year alongside a 14-fold jump in revenue, while rival OpenAI has only confidentially filed and isn't expected to debut until 2027.
Data centres, the warehouse facilities powering AI services like ChatGPT and online activity generally, are drawing bipartisan political opposition ahead of the 3 November US midterms. Both Republican and Democratic candidates have spoken out against their rapid growth, citing heavy electricity consumption and environmental concerns, while President Trump has dismissed the backlash as a 'sick conspiracy.'
Former WIRED editor Shoshana Berger and cofounder Nina Willdorf started the Aged Intelligence Society, an invite-only dinner series where women experiment with AI tools to tackle midlife challenges. The events have drawn oversubscribed crowds, coverage from The New York Times, and a Substack newsletter that has surpassed 1,000 subscribers, including a New Yorker writer and a small-town mayor.
The Financial Times reports that 47 large data center projects have fallen through this year, citing data from RegLayer. Bernstein analysts estimate only about 35 percent of currently planned facilities are actually feasible, with people involved in the buildout telling the FT that high interest rates and volatile bond markets are threatening their plans.
An analysis argues that the biggest financial winners of the current AI investment surge are not AI companies themselves, but businesses in adjacent sectors benefiting from the spending wave. The piece suggests AI adoption is reducing direct payments between people and companies, shifting economic value elsewhere.
HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery told CNBC that AI is transformational and will boost productivity across the bank, but warned investors to be selective when backing data center infrastructure. He said quality of tenancy agreements and contract pricing vary widely, with some deals far less sound than others.
China's economy grew 4.5% in the third quarter, up from a three-year low but down from 5% in the first quarter, according to official data. Exports of high-tech goods rose 14.3% and production of batteries and industrial robots grew over 29%, while property investment fell more than 20% in the first nine months of the year.