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ChatGPT hits $100M in ad revenue: It has only been six weeks since OpenAI began experimenting with showing ads in ChatGPT results. Nonetheless, the company already reports that they’ve hit $100 million in annual ad revenue from the campaign. Most of the users signed up for the Free or Go tiers are eligible for the ad program, but so far, OpenAI reports that just 20% of ChatGPT users have actually enjoyed an ad-supported experience. So there is way more room for this program to grow. Up next: “self-serve” access for advertisers in April, while Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are likely to start seeing ads soon.
Aetherflux builds orbital data centers: The startup comes from Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, and aims to launch solar-powered AI data centers into orbit, starting in 2027. (Also on the docket: developing a method to beam solar energy from orbit back to the Earth via lasers.) Bhatt exited Robinhood 2 years ago and started Aetherflux with $10 million of his own capital; a $50 million Series A followed with participating from Bill Gates’ energy venture fund, Andreessen Horowitz, and others. The company is now seeking $250-$300 million in additional funds at a $2 billion valuation.
Google makes it easier to switch to Gemini: In a blog post, the company announced a line-up of new Gemini tools allowing users to upload their chat histories and context from other AI apps, like ChatGPT or Claude. The “import” option is available to free and paid users, and Google even provides a recommended prompt to use, so your former chatbot will compile and contribute the most crucial information and context. So for those keeping score, we’re now we’re having the AIs train other AIs to take over their jobs. The betrayal!

TWiST 500

On All In this week, the Besties declare that T500 all-star Anthropic is on a “generational run,” and it’s getting harder and harder to disagree.

The company confirmed they’re developing their most advanced and powerful AI model yet, after its existence leaked to Fortune earlier this week. Anthropic calls the model — codenamed “Claude Mythos” — a “step change” in AI performance, though they’re apparently concerned about potential cybersecurity risks, should it ever find its way into the world. Nonetheless, a few lucky beta testers are playing around with The Myth now.

The same leak also informed Fortune about another upcoming release, “Capybara,” which will also be “larger and more intelligent than our Opus models.” For now, it seems likely that Mythos and Capybara are built atop the same underlying model.

So much buzz and momentum means an IPO can’t be ALL THAT FAR away. Sure enough, Bloomberg reports that the company is considering a public debut as early as October. Discussions with Wall Street banks are apparently already underway, as Anthropic looks to potentially raise more than $60 billion.

With so much positive news surrounding Anthropic and their products, it’s easy to forget that the company is also locked in a protracted legal battle against the US government. A federal judge in San Francisco this week granted Anthropic’s request for an injunction, pausing President Trump and the Pentagon’s designation of the company as a “supply chain risk” or a threat to US national security. In her order, Judge Rita Lin writes “punishing Anthropic for bringing public scrutiny to the government’s contracting position is classic illegal First Amendment retaliation,” giving us some insight into how successful the US military has been in presenting its case so far. – Lon

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This Week in Startups

E2267: We’ve caught Subnet Fever on TWiST, so Lon and Alex welcome three sets of subnet founders to take a look at what they’re building on the TAO blockchain. The list includes MetaNova, which runs developer competitions to uncover molecular candidates that could one day lead to new drug treatments for major diseases. Plus there’s the Bitcast Network, which uses Bittensor to create a marketplace between brands and YouTube content creators. Finally, we’ve got Score, which uses a subnet model to generate small but highly specialized computer vision models.

E2266: Jason’s exploring the controversy surrounding compliance startup Delve with special guests Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund and Ryan Mahdavi from Ceel (another compliance startup, and a Delve competitor). Is Silicon Valley’s “move fast and break things” culture to blame? And why did Ryan always have deep suspicions about the once promising Y Combinator-backed company? PLUS two more demos from data center energy savers Brick and Bittensor Subnet 71, lead generation service LeadPoet.

E2265: In our LaunchFest grand finale, Jason’s joined by Zipline founder Keller Cliffton, who shares his company’s journey from transporting life-saving blood donations to Rwandan hospitals through scaling up to 8 countries and deliveries of all kinds. Plus we’ve got Rahul Vohra from Superhuman sharing his own entrepreneurial backstory, from launching Rapportive while living in Cambridge through his latest startup’s merger with Grammarly.

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