Anthropic buys $30 billion of Azure cloud capability - and nets $15 billion investment from Microsoft and Nvidia in return

Anthropic has taken a definitive stance against OpenCode, explicitly blocking its access, which raises concerns about competition and collaboration in the AI sector. This decision reflects a strategic move amid the company's ongoing efforts to establish itself as a leader in artificial intelligence technologies.

President Trump has imposed limited tariffs on foreign semiconductors, allowing him to take a cut of Nvidia's chip sales to China while delaying a decision on higher taxes for the chip industry, which heavily relies on overseas materials.

The U.S. Commerce Department has eased restrictions, allowing Nvidia to sell its H200 AI chips to approved customers in China, following a significant policy shift initiated by the Trump administration that lifted a previous export ban due to national security concerns. This decision marks a pivotal moment for Nvidia as it re-enters a crucial market after extensive lobbying efforts.

Z.ai's open-source GLM-Image has outperformed Google's Nano Banana Pro in complex text rendering, showcasing its capabilities in generating intricate, text-heavy graphics, although it falls short in aesthetic quality. This development highlights the competitive landscape of AI image generation technologies.

In 2026, significant initial public offerings (IPOs) are anticipated from major tech companies, including SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic, potentially transforming the financial landscape of Silicon Valley and Wall Street. SpaceX is reportedly aiming to raise over $30 billion, with a valuation target of approximately $1.5 trillion, which could make it the largest IPO in history.

Elon Musk is facing backlash over the misuse of Grok, an AI tool that has been implicated in generating sexualized images, prompting investigations by California's attorney general and a firm stance from the UK government against inappropriate content on social media platforms.

Salesforce has enhanced Slack's AI capabilities by integrating an upgraded Slackbot powered by Anthropic's Claude model, as announced by Rob Seaman, Slack's chief product officer and interim CEO, during an appearance on Bloomberg Tech.

Anthropic has introduced Cowork, a new tool that leverages its AI model Claude to assist non-experts with coding tasks, allowing users to simply communicate their needs and have the AI execute plans and tasks as a colleague would. This initiative aims to make advanced coding capabilities more accessible to everyday users.