OpenAI grabs largest private funding round in history

Top News

• OpenAI announces $110 billion round: Amazon will put up to $50 billion into the ChatGPT maker, alongside $30 million each from Nvidia and SoftBank, at a $730 billion valuation. (That works out to around 15% of the company, split three ways.) As we discussed previously, Amazon’s cash won’t all arrive right away; they’re investing $15 billion up front and then $35 billion when certain unspecified conditions are met. Beyond just the finances, OpenAI has agreed to use AWS cloud infrastructure and start employing some of Amazon’s high-end Trainium chips. OpenAI insists that nothing about this new deal will impact their long-standing chip and infrastructure agreements with Nvidia or Microsoft. Friend of the pod Nick O’Neill (aka @ChooseRich) points out on X that OpenAI alone is now as valuable as 37% of the entire crypto market.

• SpaceX could file to go public by March: According to Bloomberg, the big SpaceX IPO is imminent, and could be filed as early as next month. The company will reportedly seek to raise around $50 billion at a valuation of more than $1.75 trillion, making this the largest-ever public listing for a private company. (Though they theoretically might not hold the record for long, if OpenAI and Anthropic have anything to say about it.) It would also mean SpaceX immediately joins the ranks of the world’s most valuable public companies, alongside fellow heavyweights Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon. That, of course, includes both the rocket company itself and xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company (and X owner) which SpaceX acquired earlier this month.

• Suno hits 2M paid subscribers: The AI-powered music generator — which we’ve featured on our spinoff series, “This Week in AI” — announced that they’ve hit 2 million paid subscribers, and are pulling in $300 million in annual recurring revenue. Suno’s been on a bit of a tear recently. They announced a $250 million funding round, valuing the company at $2.45 billion, in late 2025, and settled their ongoing lawsuit with Warner Music Group, in a deal that allows the platform to release models trained on licensed music. Still, the tech remains controversial among many inside the professional music industry. Various artists rights groups released an open letter, “Say No to Suno,” calling for the company to stop training models on copyrighted material just last week.

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Anthropic has made a powerful enemy (literally). The company refused to back down in its standoff with the US military, and will not allow the Pentagon to utilize Claude models to power autonomous weapons systems or mass domestic surveillance. That’s even after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth threatened to not just cancel the company’s $200 million Pentagon contract, but declare them a “supply chain risk.” (This designation would force all other government contractors to also cancel their Claude subscriptions.)

But the two sides are not done squabbling. Pentagon chief technology officer Emil Michael told CBS News that the military had made “some very good concessions” to Anthropic in hopes of making a deal, including inviting Anthropic executives to sit on an AI ethics board. When Anthropic suggested these concessions were inadequate, Michael responded that CEO Dario Amodei is a “liar.”

President Trump publicly expressed his frustration with the AI company on Friday, directing all US government agencies to cease using Anthropic products following a six-month “phase out period.” On social media, he wrote “The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution.”

But Anthropic is not without allies in this fight. Sam Altman of long-time rival OpenAI told his staffers that he’s working behind the scenes to “de-escalate” the conflict, and suggested that he shares Anthropic and Amodei’s concerns around autonomous weapons and mass surveillance specifically. A number of current Google and OpenAI employees have also publicly expressed support for Anthropic in an open letter titled “We Will Not Be Divided.”

The Washington Post provides some additional insight into the specific nature of Anthropic’s disagreements with military brass over the use of AI in classified situations. Apparently, a Pentagon official presented Anthropic with a scenario during a meeting in January: “If an intercontinental ballistic missile was launched at the United States, could the military use [Claude] to help shoot it down?” Dario Amodei’s answer was reportedly the last straw for the Pentagon: “You could call us and we’d work it out.” (Anthropic has denied that this exchange happened.) – Lon

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This Week in Startups

E2255: We’ve got Tyler Yust, a 22-year-old developer (and aerospace engineer!) who was one of the very first contributors to the OpenClaw project. Get an inside look at how everyone’s favorite open-source AI agent came to be, from one of the brilliant minds who was there from the very beginning. Plus, Jason and Deedy Das of Menlo Ventures explain why the SaaSpocalypse fears are probably overblown, and we’re checking out two more amazing OpenClaw projects.

E2254: It’s another All-OpenClaw All-The-Time episode of TWiST, with special guest builders Oliver Henry and Jeff Weisbein. Oliver’s the creator of Larrybrain, a protocol that he’s using to teach an AI agent how to make autonomous TikTok content that regularly goes viral. Jeff is the Clawd-pilled founder of WizardRFP and WhoCoversIt; he shared his essential guide for getting started AND his personal workflow and agentic framework. This is a must-see episode for newbs just starting their OpenClaw journey.

E2253: Alright, you’ve finally got OpenClaw set up, and you’re not blowing hundreds of dollars a day on tokens any more like a sucker. But how do you get your agents to really do productive work for you, rather than just goofing around and building themselves new interfaces? We’re checking in with new projects from Jordy Coltman, Jesse Leimgruber of OpenHome, and Tremaine Grant of Pulse, to learn how expert builders are getting lots more out of their OpenClaw set-ups.

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