Is Anthropic’s $1.5T IPO Cracking?

Investors grew skeptical Anthropic’s IPO could land a $1.5T valuation after a brutal chip selloff. Thinking Machines unveiled Inkling 2 Small, Tesla announced it would wind down the Cybertruck, and Anthropic launched Personal Finance in Claude. Plus, Microsoft’s buyouts.

• Sources: major investors are increasingly skeptical Anthropic’s IPO can proceed at a $1.5T valuation after a market selloff; one says it could be closer to $1T (WSJ)
• The Nasdaq 100 fell 6% on Thursday, losing a record $2.3T in value, as the Philadelphia chip index fell 12% and vol control funds were expected to sell about $135B of US equity futures (Bloomberg)
• Thinking Machines Lab debuts Inkling 2 Small, a MoE model with 594B total and 17B active parameters, and plans to release weights next week after safety testing (Thinking Machines)
• Inkling 2 Small scored 31 on Artificial Analysis’ Intelligence Index, an 18-point jump, but used roughly four times as many output tokens per task; Thinking Machines is reportedly nearing a $5B round led by Accel (TechStrong.ai)
• Elon Musk says Tesla plans to wind down production of the Cybertruck at its Texas Gigafactory around mid-2027 “to make room for increased Cybercab production” (Financial Times)
• Anthropic launches Personal Finance in Claude, letting users connect bank and credit card accounts via Plaid with read-only access to analyze spending trends (ZDNet)

Longreads

• How employees at Microsoft, long known for its stability in the tech industry, are grappling with its decision to offer buyouts to 60,000 people as AI spending grows (The New York Times)

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