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Tech News
Anthropic is preparing a Nasdaq listing, reportedly targeting mid-November, with investors now eyeing a valuation of $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion—down from earlier talk of $2 trillion. The timing follows a steep Nasdaq selloff and midterm election results in which candidates favoring stricter AI regulation won in several states, and local communities rejected data center proposals in 40 of 41 ballot measures.
AI safety research group METR published a report Thursday after an 11-week investigation inside Anthropic, finding that the company's AI models are improving roughly twice as fast as they were a year ago. The report, part of an evaluation of Anthropic's AI research and development practices, notes Anthropic was allowed to redact portions of the final document under their agreement.
OpenAI has secured $11 billion in a new funding round that values the company at $1.25 trillion, according to Bloomberg sources. The round hasn't closed yet and is expected to reach roughly $20 billion in the coming weeks, falling short of the $30 billion target Bloomberg reported OpenAI was pursuing in September.
Investors in Anthropic now doubt the AI company can reach even a $1.5 trillion valuation at IPO, down from earlier talk of $2 trillion, according to people who spoke to CNBC. One investor called $1.5 trillion a 'stretch' and suggested $1 trillion to $1.25 trillion is more realistic, though figures could shift with market conditions. Anthropic, which was privately valued at $965 billion in May, declined to comment and is expected to begin its IPO roadshow next week under the ticker ANT.
Anthropic's S1 filing stated it may soon cross a Responsible Scaling Policy threshold defining 'dramatic acceleration' of AI research due to AI itself. A METR investigation, described in a blog post by someone with partial, redacted access to the report, found that Anthropic's capabilities progress between October 2025 and October 2026 ran about twice as fast as in the prior year, measured via an internal Epoch Capabilities Index variant. The report's authors reportedly concluded that AI automation, not increased compute or other inputs, is the main driver of this faster pace, though much of their supporting evidence remains redacted.
OpenAI has closed a new funding round valuing the company at $1.25 trillion, raising roughly $11 billion so far, according to Bloomberg. The company is reportedly still seeking additional investment that could push the total to $20 billion, short of an earlier target of $30 billion at a $1.4 trillion valuation.
Censys security researcher Silas Cutler identified more than 800 instances of Artex, an open-source autonomous penetration-testing tool, accessible over the internet without any password. Artex, released publicly in July, has been linked to multiple cyberattacks, including a September incident targeting Korea's finance industry. Cutler noted the software does not require internet exposure, and while many deployments likely belong to authorized testers, the reason so many are publicly accessible remains unclear.
AI benchmarking firm Vals tested multiple AI models' ability to carry out multi-step intrusions on simulated corporate networks and found that freely downloadable open-weight models now perform nearly as well as top closed models from major labs. Researcher Nikil Ravi said frontier models once restricted to trusted-access programs are being matched by models anyone can download.
OpenAI launched GPT-6 Cyber, a variant of its newest flagship model built specifically for cybersecurity defenders, giving early access to security teams at companies including Mozilla and Palo Alto Networks. The rollout came the same week Anthropic also pushed updates to Claude, as both companies continue adding incremental capabilities to their chatbots rather than full public releases of new frontier models.
Prospective investors in Anthropic's planned IPO are now discussing a valuation of $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion, down sharply from $1.4-1.5 trillion just days earlier and from $2 trillion floated in early October, Bloomberg reported. The repricing followed a 6.4% Nasdaq 100 plunge that erased roughly $2.3 trillion in market value, and the Wall Street Journal reported some major prospective investors want an even lower price, with one suggesting near $1 trillion. Anthropic declined to comment.
A podcast discussion between Patrick McKenzie and Zvi Mowshowitz examines Anthropic's IPO filing (S-1), highlighting a founder-controlled share structure where a single Class F share holds 50.1% of voting power, an uncapped 3:1 employee donation-matching program, and roughly $900 billion in forward compute commitments. The pair also note that Anthropic's softer Q3 revenue appears driven by limited GPU supply rather than weak customer demand.
Intermediaries such as Handshake and firms pitching to media and startup founders are offering companies and individuals payments—reportedly ranging from roughly $1,000 to as much as $2 million—for archives of internal documents, emails, Slack messages, call transcripts and work records. The buyers say the material is destined for AI labs like Anthropic and OpenAI, which want proprietary 'knowledge work' data to train models now that public web data is largely exhausted.