#anthropic

#anthropic

AI itself is known for its bigness - it's in the name, large language model. On the ground, techies are going small. AI heads are crawling for exclusive, small-batch merchandise to flaunt on X and show just how inner circle they are. As AI merch booms, it's clearer than ever that these companies - both massive foundation model companies and startups - have hit the mainstream.These days, AI status symbols are popping up everywhere.

"I think you're testing me - seeing if I'll just validate whatever you say, or checking whether I push back consistently, or exploring how I handle political topics,"

In the race to build brands around AI assistants, the stakes are higher than empathy. This week's debut brand marketing campaigns from OpenAI and Anthropic made that clear, and in retrospect, cast Perplexity's earlier campaign in a sharper light. These aren't brands trying to be relatable. They're trying to normalize a seismic shift in human-machine interaction. As Neil Barrie, co-founder and global CEO of TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, put it: "All of them are building brands around weapons grade power."

Anthropic has unveiled 'Keep Thinking,' a brand platform that features the company's Claude model as the AI of choice for problem solvers.

"This landmark settlement far surpasses any other known copyright recovery," said plaintiffs' attorney Justin Nelson. "It is the first of its kind in the AI era."

Anthropic, the AI startup behind the chatbot Claude, finalized a deal on Tuesday for a new, $13 billion Series F funding round that catapults its valuation from $61.5 billion to $183 billion, making it one of the most valuable startups ever. Anthropic has more than 300,000 business customers and has seen a sevenfold increase in its number of large clients with projects above $100,000 in the past year, the company said in a statement.

It could also be seen as reflecting a collective insanity in the world of finance. While the company boasted impressive growth and claimed its run-rate revenue has increased from $1 billion to $5 billion so far in 2025 alone, $13 billion is still a significant bet to place on a technology more notable for burning cash rather than generating profits.

Anthropic has told investors it is displeased by the prevalence of a popular kind of investment vehicle being marketed to those eager to get in on the AI boom. In its latest funding round, the AI startup is raising around $5 billion at a $170 billion valuation. It told one of its largest investors, Menlo Ventures, that the venture capital firm must use its own capital and not resort to a special purpose vehicle, or SPV, as it did in a previous funding round.

Anthropic has updated the usage policy for its Claude AI chatbot to include a ban on developing biological, chemical, radiological, or nuclear weapons, amidst safety concerns.

Judge Alsup stated that proceeding with trial and class notice does not hinder appellate review, suggesting that the Ninth Circuit could finalize its Rule 23(f) assessment before the trial begins.