Trending Thursday #33

Hi !

The AI valuation wars have officially gone nuclear, Apple finally admitted Siri needs a complete rebuild, and the longest-running regulatory soap opera in tech history is finally ending.

Here's what's been trending:

• OpenAI is seeking $50B+ at a $750-$830B valuation from Middle East investors, while Anthropic's revenue hit $9B+, but margins are getting squeezed

• Apple plans to turn Siri into a full chatbot in iOS 27 this fall, and is building an AirTag-sized AI wearable for 2027

• TikTok's US sale to Oracle and Silverlake is closing this week, with both the US and China signing off on the deal

• AI talent exodus accelerates: Yann LeCun left Meta for a Paris startup, and ex-Anthropic/xAI/Google researchers raised $480M at a $4.48B valuation

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💰 The Valuation Wars: OpenAI vs Anthropic's Race to Infinity

The two leading AI labs are both sprinting to raise capital at valuations that would have seemed absurd 18 months ago. But the details reveal very different stories.

🚀 OpenAI's $750B Moonshot

Bloomberg reports that Sam Altman recently visited the Middle East for early talks with investors, aiming to raise $50B+ at a valuation of $750B-$830B.

The Context: This would be the largest private funding round in history, dwarfing Anthropic's $25B+ round currently in progress. For reference, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar revealed last week that the company hit $20B+ in annualized revenue and now consumes ~1.9 GW of compute.

The Enterprise Push: The Information reports that Barret Zoph, the Thinking Machines Lab co-founder who rejoined OpenAI last week, will lead OpenAI's enterprise push as part of a broader reorganization. Basically, OpenAI is betting big on B2B to justify that valuation.

📉 Anthropic's $9B Revenue... and Margin Squeeze

The Good News: Bloomberg reports that Anthropic's revenue run rate hit $9B+ at the end of 2025, up from $4B in July. Iconiq, Lightspeed, and Menlo are set to join its new funding round.

The Not So Good News: The Information reports that Anthropic projected a 40% gross margin from selling AI to companies and developers in 2025, down from its earlier estimate of 50%, due to 23% higher inference costs.

Translation: Revenue is exploding, but so are the costs of actually running the models. When inference costs jump 23%, and margins drop 10 points, the unit economics of AI aren't quite as magical as the top-line growth suggests. Both companies are racing to raise at astronomical valuations, but only one of them is showing margin compression.

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🍎 Apple's AI Awakening: Siri Finally Gets a Brain

After years of watching ChatGPT eat its lunch, Apple is finally treating AI as an existential threat rather than a feature update.

🤖 Siri Becomes a Chatbot

Mark Gurman reports that Apple plans to revamp Siri this fall in iOS 27 and macOS 27, turning it into the company's first AI chatbot and replacing the current Siri interface entirely.

The Federighi Factor: The Information adds that Craig Federighi led a push to use other companies' models to help launch the revamped Siri. This explains the Gemini deal we covered last week, so Apple needed external help to catch up.

📍 The Hardware Play: AI Wearable Pin

The Information also reports that Apple is developing an AirTag-sized AI wearable pin with cameras, a speaker, microphones, and wireless charging, which it could launch as early as 2027.

The Competition: This puts Apple in direct competition with OpenAI's rumored screenless wearable, expected in H2 2026. The race to build the post-smartphone AI device is officially on.

Translation: Apple spent years treating Siri as "good enough." Now they're rebuilding it from scratch AND building dedicated AI hardware. When the world's most valuable company goes into catch-up mode, you know the competitive landscape has shifted permanently.

🎯 TikTok Endgame + The Great AI Talent Exodus

Two stories that seemed impossible a year ago are now happening simultaneously: TikTok is getting sold, and the researchers who built the AI revolution are leaving to start their own companies.

📱 TikTok US Sale Finally Closing

Semafor reports that the US and China have both approved a deal to sell TikTok's US business to a group of mostly US investors led by Oracle and Silverlake, set to close this week.

The North American Sweep: Meanwhile, a Canadian federal court overturned a 2024 order that would have shuttered TikTok Canada's business operations over national security concerns. TikTok survives on both sides of the border.

🧠 AI Researchers Fleeing Big Labs

The talent that built these AI giants is increasingly betting they can do it better on their own.

Yann LeCun's Exit: MIT Technology Review published a Q&A with Yann LeCun about his new Paris-based startup, Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI Labs), his departure from Meta, and his plans for world models and robotics.

The $480M Seed: The New York Times reports that Humans&, founded by ex-Anthropic, xAI, and Google staff to build collaborative AI, raised a $480M seed from Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, and others at a $4.48B valuation.

The OpenAI Critique: Core Memory published a Q&A with recently departed OpenAI VP of Research Jerry Tworek, who claims OpenAI's shift toward more conservative approaches made high-risk, pioneering work harder.

Translation: When Yann LeCun leaves Meta, a team of ex-Anthropic/xAI/Google researchers raises half a billion at seed, and OpenAI's former VP of Research says the company got too conservative, and the talent is voting with its feet. The next generation of AI labs is being founded right now.

🛠️ Product Quick Hits

🎬 YouTube Shorts Get AI Likenesses: CEO Neal Mohan says creators will be able to generate Shorts using their AI likenesses later in 2026, and touts AI tools for making games and music.

🎵 ElevenLabs Drops AI Music Album: Launches album of original tracks made by artists like Liza Minnelli and Art Garfunkel in "collaboration" with its Eleven Music AI model. The quotes are doing a lot of work there.

⚖️ Anthropic Overhauls Claude's Constitution: Updates the rules governing Claude to enable the model to "generalize and apply broad principles rather than mechanically follow specific rules."

📺 Netflix Adds Live Voting: Rolls out real-time voting feature with the premiere of its Star Search reboot. Interactive TV keeps trying to happen.

📄 Adobe Acrobat Gets AI Editing: Now lets you edit files using prompts and generate podcast summaries from docs stored in Adobe Spaces.

🐦 X Copies Bluesky, Open Sources Algorithm: Unveils Bluesky-like "Starterpacks" and open sources its recommendation system on GitHub, which "ranks everything using a Grok-based transformer model."

👔 Personnel Quick Hits

🧠 Yann LeCun Leaves Meta: The AI pioneer departs to launch Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI Labs) in Paris, focusing on world models and robotics.

💼 Barret Zoph Leading OpenAI Enterprise: The ex-Thinking Machines co-founder who rejoined OpenAI last week will lead the company's enterprise push as part of a broader reorg.

🏥 xAI Co-Founder Greg Yang Steps Back: Moving to an informal advisory role to focus on health after Lyme disease diagnosis.

🎤 xAI Engineer Departs After Podcast: Sulaiman Ghori says he has "left" the startup after saying on a podcast that xAI skirted regulations while building data centers.

🌏 Meta Asia Policy Chief Retiring: Simon Milner, Meta's most senior Asia-Pacific policy executive who joined in 2012, will retire from full-time work in H1 2026.

🌟 Editor's Note

At Startup Intros, our mission is to bring the latest founder-investor news straight to your inbox, keeping you ahead in the fast-paced world of Silicon Valley.

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💭 Parting Thoughts

The numbers this week tell a story about what happens when hype meets reality.

OpenAI wants $750B. Anthropic's revenue hit $9B, but margins are compressing. Apple is finally rebuilding Siri from scratch after years of denial. TikTok is getting sold after a saga that outlasted two presidencies. And the researchers who built these AI empires are leaving to start their own.

The common thread? Everyone's realizing that the current moment is temporary. OpenAI needs to raise before the window closes. Anthropic needs to grow before inference costs eat the business. Apple needs to catch up before it's too late. And the top AI talent needs to strike while they still have leverage.

The AI boom isn't ending, but the easy money era might be. The next phase belongs to whoever can actually build sustainable businesses, not just raise at higher valuations.

Till next time!

P.S. Raised this week, and we missed you? Want to be featured? Have tips or funding questions? Reply or DM us as we’re here to help.

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