Anthropic Raises $30B at $380B Valuation, ByteDance Seedance 2.0 Goes Viral, Waymo Deploys 6th-Gen Robotaxis | February 13, 2026
📋 Quick Takeaways
- Anthropic closes record $30B Series G at $380B valuation — the second-largest private tech round ever — with annualized revenue hitting $14B and Claude Code surpassing $2.5B run-rate
- ByteDance officially launches Seedance 2.0, a multimodal AI video model that goes viral on Chinese social media, drawing “DeepSeek moment” comparisons and an Elon Musk reaction
- Anthropic donates $20M to pro-AI-regulation PAC, escalating a political spending war with OpenAI-backed groups ahead of the 2026 midterm elections
- Waymo begins deploying 6th-generation Ojai robotaxis with 42% fewer sensors, targeting 1M weekly rides and expansion to 10+ new U.S. cities plus London
- Singapore unveils sweeping AI-centric national budget with 400% tax deductions, a National AI Council, and free public AI tools
- Meta begins construction on a ~$10B data center in Indiana with 1GW power capacity
- Goldman Sachs raises Nvidia estimates ahead of Feb 25 earnings, forecasting a $2B revenue beat as hyperscaler capex tops $600B
- AGIBOT launches $530K global robotics competition at ICRA 2026, reinforcing embodied AI as a major frontier
💰 AI Funding & Corporate Strategy
Anthropic Closes $30B Series G at $380B Valuation — Second-Largest Private Tech Round in History
Anthropic announced on Thursday the close of a $30 billion Series G funding round, valuing the company at $380 billion post-money — more than double its $183 billion valuation from September 2025. The round is the second-largest private tech financing ever, trailing only OpenAI’s $40B+ raise last year.
By Daily AI Blog
read moreAI Industry Shakeup: Safety Exodus Hits OpenAI, Anthropic & xAI as $20B+ Funding Rounds Close | February 12, 2026
📋 Quick Takeaways
- Unprecedented AI safety exodus: High-profile departures hit OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI within days — researchers warn companies are “moving too fast”
- OpenAI fires VP who opposed ChatGPT “adult mode”; researcher Zoë Hitzig quits over advertising in NYT op-ed
- Half of xAI’s 12 co-founders have now left Elon Musk’s AI company amid Grok deepfake controversy and reorganization
- VCs break taboo: Sequoia and Altimeter invest in both OpenAI and Anthropic simultaneously as $20B+ rounds close
- DeepSeek V4 expected mid-February with 1T parameters, reportedly outperforming Claude and GPT on coding benchmarks
- Trump administration plans chip tariff exemptions for Amazon, Google, and Microsoft tied to TSMC’s $165B US investment
- Microsoft explores superconducting power cables to solve AI data center energy bottleneck
- MiniMax M2.5 launches claiming parity with Claude Opus 4.6 in coding and agentic tasks
🛡️ AI Safety & Talent Exodus
Wave of AI Safety Departures Rocks the Industry
An extraordinary cluster of high-profile resignations and firings has swept across the AI industry within a matter of days, raising urgent questions about the tension between rapid commercialization and responsible AI development.
By Daily AI Blog
read moreChatGPT Ads Go Live, $2 Trillion Software Wipeout & $30B+ AI Infrastructure Deals | February 11, 2026
📋 Quick Takeaways
- OpenAI officially begins testing ads in ChatGPT for Free and Go tier users in the U.S., marking a historic monetization shift for consumer AI
- Anthropic fires back with anti-ad manifesto and strikes AI partnership with Man Group, escalating the OpenAI rivalry to new heights
- $2 trillion wiped off software stocks in a week, yet AI bull market holds as hyperscaler capex guidance surges 24% YoY to $660B for 2026
- Alphabet raises $20 billion in its largest-ever bond sale — including a 100-year bond — to fund AI infrastructure buildout
- Firmus Technologies secures $10 billion Blackstone-led loan for Australian AI data centers, one of the largest private credit deals ever
- Melius Research downgrades Microsoft, saying CEO Nadella has “lost the AI narrative” with Copilot underperformance
- ChatGPT returns to 10%+ monthly growth, with OpenAI teasing an updated chat model shipping this week
💰 AI Monetization & Platform Strategy
OpenAI Officially Launches Ads in ChatGPT — A Watershed Moment for Consumer AI
Historic Shift: On February 10, OpenAI officially began testing advertisements inside ChatGPT, fundamentally changing the economics of consumer AI. The rollout targets logged-in adult users on the Free and Go subscription tiers in the United States.
By Daily AI Blog
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