Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence
Berkshire helps Alphabet raise US$80bn for AI push
Alphabet Inc is raising US$80 billion (A$111 billion) to fund an aggressive expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure with Berkshire Hathaway contributing $10 billion in a private placement. Alphabet said the capital would support growing demand for AI computing capacity across its products and services, including search, cloud computing and custom AI chips. The technology giant will sell $5 billion of Class A common stock at $351.81 per share and $5 billion in Class C capital stock for $348.20 per share to Berkshire Hathaway, which adds to the investment company’s growing stake in Google’s parent company. The broader capital raising includes:$30 billion in concurrent public offerings, split between Class A and Class C shares and depositary shares linked to mandatory convertible preferred stock, anda $40 billion at-the-market offering program beginning in the third quarter of 2026, allowing it to sell shares gradually depending on market conditions.“The company is experiencing strong demand for its AI solutions and services from enterprises and consumers, at levels that are exceeding the company’s available supply,” Alphabet said in a news release. “By scaling its investments, the company seeks to ex
Artificial Intelligence
Anthropic's Glasswing expands 4X as Trump signs AI order
Anthropic announced on Tuesday it was expanding Project Glasswing - its restricted partnership built around Claude Mythos Preview, the model developed specifically for identifying software vulnerabilities - from roughly 50 organisations to approximately 200, with each new partner required to meet security clearance requirements before gaining access. The expanded group brings stronger representation from industries including power, water, healthcare, communications, and hardware - sectors considered critical infrastructure that were not well-represented in the initial April cohort. Partners already inside the program have surfaced more than 10,000 vulnerabilities rated high or critical in severity since April, with Anthropic estimating a coordinated attack on member organisations could affect more than 100 million people. The Glasswing announcement landed on the same day the White House confirmed it had quietly signed an executive order seeking to formalise exactly this kind of arrangement at a federal level. The executive order, taken at face value, endorses exactly the framework Glasswing represents - government access to frontier models, pre-release, within a structured security arrangement - which sits in some tens
Artificial Intelligence
Anthropic opens door for potential trillion dollar IPO
Anthropic has taken another step toward a stock market listing by filing for an initial public offering (IPO) in a move that could spark a wave of US$1 trillion (A$1.4 trillion)-plus deals. The privately-owned artificial intelligence (AI) model developer said it had confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 to the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an IPO of common stock. “This gives us the option to go public after the SEC completes its review. The proposed initial public offering will depend on market conditions and other factors,” the company, best known for its Claude AI assistant, said in a statement. Anthropic, which was founded by former OpenAI researchers, including Chief Executive Dario Amodei, did not disclose the size or the terms of the offering, but in May became the world’s most valuable private AI company when it raised $65 billion at a valuation of $965 billion. “The number of shares to be offered and the price have not yet been set,” it said. The filing positions Anthropic as the first of the leading AI model developers to formally begin the process of entering public markets, beating rival OpenAI, which offers the widely used ChatGPT assistant.
Artificial Intelligence
SoftBank plans AI push in France
Japan’s SoftBank Group plans to invest €45 billion (US$52.4 billion) over the next five years in artificial intelligence infrastructure in France, as part of a broader €75 billion programme aimed at expanding Europe’s AI compute capacity. The company said on Sunday that the initiative will focus on building out large-scale data centre infrastructure capable of supporting advanced AI workloads, with a planned total capacity of 5 gigawatts. SoftBank said the initial phase of the project will involve constructing 3.1GW of AI data centres in northern France’s Hauts-de-France region by 2031, including sites in Dunkirk, Bosquel and Bouchain. “The commitment marks SoftBank Group’s largest AI infrastructure investments in Europe,” SoftBank said. “It is designed to support the rapid growth of artificial intelligence by expanding access to high-performance compute capacity in France.” The investment is expected to be formally announced on Monday, signalling one of the largest single private commitments to European AI infrastructure to date. Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp., said: “AI is entering a new era, and the countries that build the infrastructure for this transformation will shape the future o
Artificial Intelligence
EU pushes for access to advanced US AI models
The European Union is seeking to intensify discussions with the United States over access to the world's most advanced artificial intelligence models, particularly systems with powerful cybersecurity capabilities, as policymakers seek greater oversight of rapidly advancing technology. The push comes after Anthropic's Mythos model, unveiled in April, sparked significant concern among governments and businesses due to its potential cyber capabilities and the possibility that such systems could be used to identify vulnerabilities or facilitate sophisticated cyberattacks. Anthropic said on Thursday it expects to make "Mythos-class" models available to customers in the coming weeks, marking a significant step in the broader rollout of the technology. The White House has been working closely with major AI developers as it seeks to balance technological innovation with national security considerations, while maintaining the United States' lead over China in the global artificial intelligence race. Anthropic initially provided preview access to Mythos through a programme known as Project Glasswing, limiting availability to a select group of companies and organisations. However, the company has not granted preview access to

Artificial Intelligence
Anthropic nears US$1tn valuation in funding round
Anthropic has become the world’s most valuable private artificial intelligence (AI) company after raising money at prices that capitalise it at US$965 billion (A$1.3 trillion). The company best known for developing the Claude AI assistants surpassed the $852 billion valuation of rival OpenAI when it raised $65 billion in its Series H funding round led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Greenoaks and Sequoia Capital. This represented a huge increase from the $380 billion valuation implied by a funding round just three months ago and underlines the desperate investor clamour for stocks leveraged to the boom in AI investment. Anthropic said accelerating enterprise adoption of its Claude models and soaring demand for computing infrastructure underpinned the latest funding round. “This funding will help us serve the historic demand we are experiencing, stay at the research frontier, and bring Claude to more of the places where work happens,” Chief Financial Officer Krishna Rao said in an announcement. The company said adoption of its Claude Code and Cowork tools had continued to grow across global enterprise customers since its Series G funding round in February, and its ‘run-rate’ revenue exceeded $47 bil
Artificial Intelligence
SK Hynix crosses US$1tn on surging memory demand
Shares of SK Hynix jumped as much as 11% on Wednesday, lifting the South Korean chipmaker's market capitalisation above US$1 trillion as investors continued to pile into artificial intelligence-linked semiconductor stocks. At its intraday peak, the stock climbed 14.9% before pulling back, with the chipmaker's total market value hitting a record 1,680 trillion won - equivalent to roughly $1.12 trillion. SK Hynix pared gains to close 9.21% higher, while compatriot Samsung Electronics ended up 2.68%. The memory chipmaker's 250% year-to-date rally underscores how tightly the Kospi's fortunes have become bound to the global AI infrastructure build-out. Samsung Electronics had first cleared the $1 trillion threshold on May 6, and Micron Technology followed just one day earlier, on Tuesday, meaning SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron now form the three dominant suppliers of high-bandwidth memory, each sitting at the centre of the global AI infrastructure buildout. Counterpoint Research data show that as of the fourth quarter of last year, SK Hynix commanded 57% of global HBM revenue, leaving Samsung and Micron with 22% and 21% respectively. Full-year 2026 HBM capacity is already sold out, with supply shortages expected to ext
Artificial Intelligence
Pope calls for artificial intelligence to be 'disarmed'
Pope Leo XIV has urged governments worldwide to slow the development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems and curb their disruptive effects. He was supported by Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, who said firms like his needed outside scrutiny. Catholic popes have been urging global leaders to address social justice issues for 135 years across some two dozen major documents that many of the world's 1.4 billion faithful can cite by their two or three-word titles. Now, Leo XIV has added his name to the pantheon, issuing his sweeping vision on Monday titled Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity). Invoking the biblical story of the Tower of Babel — where a human tribe is driven by pride to build a tower tall enough to reach Heaven, angering God — the pope said the story shows the risk of any enterprise that "aspires to reach heaven without God's blessing". "With the heart of a shepherd and a father, I ask everyone to abandon the construction of yet another Tower of Babel and to join forces in building up the common good," Pope Leo stated. At the Vatican event, Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah thanked Pope Leo for addressing the problems raised by the disruptive new technology. He said firms like his faced stro
Artificial Intelligence
Micron joins US$1tn club after broker upgrade
Micron Technology Inc has passed a valuation of US$1 trillion (A$1.4 trillion) for the first time after a surge in its stock price. Shares in the United States computer chip maker (NASDAQ: MU) hit a record high of $916.80 before closing at $895.88 on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), up $144.88 or 19.29% on the day and capitalising the company at $1.01 trillion. The rise was helped by an upgrade from broker UBS, which raised its price target to $1,625 from $535 per share, the highest among the 46 brokerages covering the company, according to LSEG data. It also reflects a shift in investor focus among stocks leveraged to the boom in artificial intelligence (AI), with attention turning to companies like Micron that produce memory chips from those that produce graphics processing units like NVIDIA. "The need for pure memory has increased ⁠rapidly over very short periods of time, and clearly, Micron sits at the centre of it," B. Riley Wealth chief market strategist Art Hogan was quoted as saying in a Reuters article. "Today's crossing of the $1 trillion mark for Micron is just an exclamation point on the story of the massive amount of demand needed to run data centres in this AI revolution." A total of 11 companies listed on

Artificial Intelligence

Berkshire helps Alphabet raise US$80bn for AI push

Anthropic's Glasswing expands 4X as Trump signs AI order

Anthropic opens door for potential trillion dollar IPO

SoftBank plans AI push in France

EU pushes for access to advanced US AI models

Anthropic nears US$1tn valuation in funding round

SK Hynix crosses US$1tn on surging memory demand

Pope calls for artificial intelligence to be 'disarmed'

Micron joins US$1tn club after broker upgrade

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