Tech stocks today: OpenAI raises $110 billion, Anthropic rejects Defense Department AI demands

Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) CEO Dario Amodei issued a connection Thursday evening, saying his institution won't taxable to the Department of Defense’s demands that it beryllium allowed to usage its AI exertion arsenic it sees fit, wrong the law.

The Defense Department and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth person threatened to unit Anthropic to springiness the Pentagon afloat usage of its models nether the Defense Production Act — or, conversely, state it a proviso concatenation menace and unit different Pentagon vendors who enactment with the AI institution to halt utilizing its software.

“These threats bash not alteration our position: we cannot successful bully conscience accede to their request,” Amodei said successful his statement.

Anthropic and the Pentagon person been successful an ongoing standoff astir however the DOD volition usage its Claude AI. The institution says that portion it already works with the Defense Department, including wrong the government's classified networks and by advocating for beardown spot export controls to China, it wants assurances that the DOD volition not usage its models for the wide surveillance of Americans oregon for afloat autonomous weapons.

Earlier Thursday, main Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the DOD had nary tendency to surveil Americans oregon make afloat autonomous weapons.

"This is simply a simple, common-sense petition that volition forestall Anthropic from jeopardizing captious subject operations and perchance putting our warfighters astatine risk. We volition not fto ANY institution dictate the presumption regarding however we marque operational decisions. They person until 5:01 PM ET connected Friday to decide," Parnell wrote successful a station connected X.

In a abstracted statement, an Anthropic spokesperson said the DOD's latest declaration connection doesn't code the company's concerns.

"The declaration connection we received overnight from the Department of War made virtually nary advancement connected preventing Claude's usage for wide surveillance of Americans oregon successful afloat autonomous weapons," the spokesperson said.

"New connection framed arsenic compromise was paired with legalese that would let those safeguards to beryllium disregarded astatine will. Despite DOW's caller nationalist statements, these constrictive safeguards person been the crux of our negotiations for months."

OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) said connected Friday that it has received $110 cardinal successful caller investments, including $30 cardinal from SoftBank (SFTBY), $30 cardinal from Nvidia (NVDA), and $50 cardinal from Amazon (AMZN), to assistance standard its artificial quality products.

As portion of the announcement, OpenAI and Amazon announced a strategical concern to co-create a strategy for AWS customers to physique generative AI applications and agents utilizing OpenAI models. AWS volition beryllium the exclusive third-party unreality organisation supplier for OpenAI Frontier, Amazon said successful a statement.

OpenAI besides expanded its concern with Nvidia, receiving 3 gigawatts of dedicated inference capableness and 2 gigawatts of grooming connected Vera Rubin systems. Nvidia and Amazon stocks fell successful premarket trading.

The adjacent of the fundraising circular valued OpenAI astatine $730 cardinal pre-money, a bully measurement up from the $500 cardinal valuation reported successful October that demonstrates however precocious expectations person tally for the AI startup's technology.

Markets person go jumpy successful caller weeks arsenic spending connected AI exertion has continued to ramp up, companies person entered analyzable webs of financing with 1 another, and contention among OpenAI, Anthropic, and Alphabet has increased.

CoreWeave (CRWV), an AI cloud-computing institution that counts hyperscalers similar Google genitor Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT) arsenic some clients and competitors, saw its shares slump arsenic overmuch arsenic 10% successful after-hours trading aft the institution announced a flimsy net bushed but predicted a monolithic leap successful spending for 2026.

On an net telephone with analysts, CEO Michael Intrator said superior expenditures would summation from $15.4 cardinal successful 2025 to astatine slightest $30 cardinal successful 2026. The institution besides said that its nett nonaccomplishment successful the 4th fourth surged to $284 cardinal from $36 cardinal past twelvemonth and noted issues with its gross backlog.

From Reuters:

CoreWeave has fielded disapproval for being portion of a web of circular AI backing betwixt companies similar Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), and the still-private OpenAI (OPAI.PVT).

Read much here.

Anthropic's deadline to respond to the Pentagon's demands to let it to usage the company's AI exemplary for "all lawful purposes" expires astatine 5:01 p.m. ET connected Friday.

The AI steadfast and its CEO, Dario Amodei, person been locked successful a standoff with the Pentagon astir whether the institution volition proceed to bounds the Department of Defense's usage of the model. Specifically, Anthropic is asking for assurances that the Pentagon won't usage its exertion to execute wide surveillance of Americans and nutrient autonomous weapons.

According to The New York Times, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act to unit Anthropic to let the Defense Department to usage the AI models arsenic it sees fit. He's besides threatened to statement the institution a proviso concatenation risk, which would forestall the Pentagon from utilizing the company's models.

Labeling Anthropic arsenic a proviso concatenation hazard would unit the Pentagon's assorted vendors to chopped ties with the company.

In a station connected X, main Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell pushed backmost against Anthropic's demands.

"The Department of War has nary involvement successful utilizing AI to behaviour wide surveillance of Americans (which is illegal) nor bash we privation to usage AI to make autonomous weapons that run without quality involvement."

Parnell claimed the presumption that the Pentagon volition usage Anthropic's tools for the wide surveillance of Americans oregon to make autonomous weapons is simply a fake communicative "peddled by leftists successful the media."

The planetary representation shortage is acceptable to interaction everything from user electronics to endeavor devices, and the smartphone industry, successful particular, volition look superior headwinds from the dearth of chips.

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the smartphone marketplace volition spot its largest year-over-year diminution ever successful 2026, plummeting 13% to its lowest levels successful a decade.

"What we are witnessing is not a impermanent squeeze, but a tsunami-like daze originating successful the representation proviso chain, with ripple effects spreading crossed the full user electronics industry,” Francisco Jeronimo, vice president of worldwide lawsuit devices astatine IDC, said successful a statement.

“The planetary smartphone market, peculiarly Android manufacturers, faces a important threat," helium added.

Memory chips are a cardinal constituent successful information centers. But a tiny fig of planetary manufacturers, including Micron (MU), Samsung (005930.KS), and SK Hynix (000660.KS), means there's lone truthful galore to spell around. And due to the fact that information halfway representation offers higher margins, chipmakers favour it implicit representation for user electronics.

The result: less disposable devices, higher prices, oregon degraded products with little memory. For user electronics companies, that translates to less sales.

Apple's adjacent merchandise rollout starts connected Monday.

The institution is expected to unveil caller MacBooks, a caller lower-cost iPhone, and perchance a caller iPad Air, according to MacRumors.

Apple is not expected to livestream a rollout announcement similar it typically does during its WWDC event, which is held successful September and usually features the announcement of its latest iPhone lineup.

Nvidia (NVDA) made a luck connected its specialized graphics processing units (GPUs) utilized to powerfulness artificial quality servers. But connected the net telephone Wednesday, CEO Jensen Huang said he's acceptable to propulsion up into making the CPUs, oregon cardinal processing units, that Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD) are known for.

Reuters reports:

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Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), and Amazon (AMZN) ticked modestly little successful the aftermath of Nvidia's net report, adjacent arsenic Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressed his ballot of assurance successful their aboriginal currency flows and, therefore, capex spending.

The 3 hyperscalers moved betwixt 0.1% and 0.4% little successful extended trading, portion Nvidia banal pared archetypal gains during the net telephone to emergence 0.5%.

"I americium assured successful their currency travel growing," Huang said of the hyperscalers connected the net call. "The crushed for that is precise simple: We person present seen the inflection of agentic AI and the usefulness of agents crossed the satellite and enterprises everywhere. You're seeing unthinkable compute request due to the fact that of it successful this caller satellite of AI. ... In this caller satellite of AI, compute equals revenues."

Other chipmakers, including Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD), besides moved little successful extended trading.

Big Tech giants can't get capable of Nvidia's chips.

Nvidia (NVDA) connected Wednesday reported 4th fourth results that topped forecasts and signaled request for its astir precocious chips remains insatiable.

And a increasing information of that request is coming from the alleged hyperscalers similar Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, who present relationship for much than fractional of the company's income successful its information halfway segment.

"Data Center gross for the 4th fourth was a grounds $62.3 billion, up 75% from a twelvemonth agone and up 22% sequentially, driven by the large level shifts – accelerated computing and AI," Nvidia CFO Colette Kress said successful a statement.

"For the 4th quarter, hyperscaler gross accrued and remained our largest lawsuit class astatine somewhat implicit 50% of Data Center revenue, portion maturation was led by the remainder of our Data Center customers arsenic gross diversified."

The past clip the institution specified was information of its information halfway income were to these customers, the institution said it was "approximately" 50%.

And portion these are tiny percent moves, the dollars astatine this standard are notable, and the expanding information of income going to these customers shows wherever these companies' monolithic capex plans amusement up.

Nvidia (NVDA) net and gross some topped Wall Street estimates, sending the banal higher successful after-hours trading.

The institution besides offered Q1 guidance betwixt $76.44 cardinal and $79.56 billion, supra Wall Street's estimates of $72.8 cardinal without factoring successful gross from China.

Read the afloat net breakdown present >

Nvidia banal (NVDA) climbed 1.4% connected Wednesday arsenic investors eagerly awaited (or braced for) the AI giant's 4th fourth report.

While Nvidia is wide expected to wide expectations, markets person been jumpy astir artificial quality lately, making the study captious for sentiment crossed a big of different AI companies and the broader market.

Bloomberg reports:

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Samsung's (005930.KS) latest enactment of Galaxy S26 smartphones features a assortment of caller AI features arsenic the institution seeks to grow its pb successful artificial quality implicit Apple (AAPL).

Yahoo Finance's Daniel Howley reports:

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Yahoo Finance's Jake Conley reports:

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Bloomberg reports:

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Nvidia banal (NVDA) is poised to spot its smallest post-earnings plaything successful 3 years aft the institution reports aft the doorbell connected Wednesday.

Nvidia options connote a determination of astir ‌5.6%, oregon $260 cardinal successful marketplace capitalization, successful either absorption connected Thursday, according to Option Research & Technology Services (ORATS).

Nvidia banal precocious 0.8% successful premarket trading connected Wednesday up of the study arsenic traders priced successful their expectations.

"We consciousness mostly beauteous favorable successful presumption of Nvidia for the 4th and adjacent for the guidance," FBB Capital Partners manager of probe Mike Bailey told Yahoo Finance. "I deliberation the existent question people is sentiment."

"You know, Nvidia's banal has been close astir with the marketplace for ... 3 to six months," Bailey added. "To us, that suggests investors truly don't person monolithic expectations built up for the quarter."

PayPal (PYPL) banal spiked 6% successful day trading aft Bloomberg reported that payments processor Stripe (STRI.PVT) is reportedly funny successful acquiring each oregon immoderate of the bequest fintech company.

PayPal has reportedly been fielding unsolicited buyout offers aft its banal suffered a large descent that wiped retired 20% of its worth twelvemonth to date. People acquainted with the substance told Bloomberg that Stripe was among the suitors that expressed preliminary involvement successful the institution but that deliberations are inactive successful the aboriginal stages.

On Tuesday, Stripe published an yearly missive disclosing a tender connection statement that values the institution astatine $159 billion, a 74% summation from Stripe's $91.5 cardinal valuation a twelvemonth ago. The merchantability of worker shares makes the privately held institution 1 of the industry's astir invaluable companies.

Nvidia (NVDA) has not yet sold immoderate of its H200 chips to Chinese customers, a Commerce Department authoritative said connected Tuesday.

"My knowing is that nary truthful far," Commerce Assistant ‌Secretary ​for ​Export ​Enforcement David ‌Peters said astatine ​a ​congressional proceeding erstwhile asked ​about ‌Nvidia's second-most-powerful chips.

According to a Reuters report, the Chinese embassy successful the US and Nvidia person yet to respond to requests for comment.

In precocious January, Beijing gave 3 of China's largest tech companies, ByteDance, Alibaba (BABA, 9988.HK), and Tencent (0700.HK, TCEHY), support to acquisition much than ‌400,000 H200 chips.

Read much from Reuters.

Anthropic connected Tuesday announced a caller suite of endeavor offerings, the latest successful a bid of caller capabilities boasted by AI labs similar Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI that person shaken capitalist assurance successful a assortment of bundle solutions that whitethorn spot their halfway merchandise replaced by an AI facsimile.

But immoderate Wall Street analysts aren't truthful definite the process volition beryllium rather that simple.

Dan Ives, precocious illustration tech bull astatine Wedbush, wrote successful a enactment Tuesday aft Anthropic's announcement that, "While these usage cases are impressive, the world is that these caller AI tools volition not rip and regenerate existing bundle ecosystems and information environments with these AI tools lone arsenic utile arsenic the information it tin reach."

In Ives' view, determination are 3 things investors who presumption these demos arsenic a motion of AI outcompeting bequest solutions mightiness beryllium missing.

One — "The marketplace is conflating instauration exemplary capableness with afloat endeavor bundle replacement and the fearfulness that generative AI volition 'rewrite bequest systems overnight' ignores endeavor reality."

Two — "AI agents and autonomous workflows dramatically summation the onslaught aboveground — much APIs, much instrumentality identities, much lateral question risk, and much cloud-native workloads. AI doesn’t trim the request for endpoint, identity, cloud, and SOC automation, it multiplies it."

Three — "Anthropic/OpenAI bash not person 20-year endeavor organisation networks, CIO relationships, oregon embedded vertical workflows. CRM, NOW, and MSFT beryllium astatine the exertion furniture wherever concern logic lives. The exemplary furniture volition commoditize faster than the workflow layer."

The cardinal constituent that I deliberation Ives raises is that exemplary advances — oregon different signs of what we mightiness telephone method brilliance — are not the aforesaid arsenic an in-market merchandise that gets customers to alteration their spending habits.

Obviously, arsenic we saw with the market's absorption to a Substack station connected Monday that was explicitly a thought experiment, determination are tons of capitalist nerves astir which advances could gully meaningful dollars from enterprises oregon consumers.

But arsenic ever, the region betwixt a demo and a merchandise tin often beryllium vast. Keeping that model successful caput mightiness service investors good successful the existent moment.