Exploring Anthropic's $50 Billion Plan  🔗 **Source:** [Exploring Anthropic's $50 Billion Plan](https://share.snipd.com/episode/4e084bc4-315c-41aa-bfbd-c161e7ba699a) ## Highlights - **Anthropic's Rapid Rise To A $900B Valuation** - Anthropic is pursuing a massive $50 billion raise at roughly a $850–900B valuation, which would surpass OpenAI's last valuation. - Bloomberg, CNBC and TechCrunch report the board will decide in May amid multiple preemptive offers pouring in for Anthropic shares. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Anthropic is in talks to raise $50 billion at a $900 billion valuation. And this would push it past opening eye for the first time ever in its valuation. And I think in some of like the private markets where, you know, employees or other people are trading shares on the secondaries market, Anthropic is already ahead. And technically, the revenue is already ahead, although opening eye says that that's a technicality to do some one time deals. Regardless, this would be the first time if it actually is executed, the Anthropic raises above what OpenAI was able to raise. In addition, AWS launched OpenAI's Frontier Models, Codex, and their managed agents on Bedrock today. ([Time 0:00:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1d79163a-752a-4aa5-bb75-b5ef54cc4cc0)) - **Learn AI Tools And Advocate For AI At Work** - If you were recently laid off, learn AI tools relevant to your expertise and become an internal AI advocate to stay hireable and promotable. - Jaeden stresses using Cloud Cowork and embedding AI efficiencies into your job improves job prospects. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer And there's a couple different reasons and a couple things that I think people should be doing if you were just laid off or if you're at a company that's doing these types of layoffs. There's a couple things that I will highlight that I think are actionable items. Okay, in addition to all of that, on the April 29th earnings night, Alphabet shares rose 6%, Meta fell more than 6%, Microsoft and Amazon both fell 3%. We're going to get into why, and there's some pretty wild reasons. And also GPT 5.4. Both of them are alive on Bedrock in addition to their Codex platform and some of their other interesting things they have with their agent harness. All this is going to be put onto Bedrock. Now, the reason why this is kind of big news because it's like, okay, great, it's like on another cloud platform. I think a lot of people don't understand that Microsoft Azure had an exclusive deal where opening, I could ([Time 0:01:08](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0c78f469-5d5c-4015-99e6-facbad6c5044)) - **OpenAI Hits AWS Right After Azure Exclusivity Ends** - OpenAI is now available on AWS Bedrock the day after its Azure exclusivity expired, removing a major platform barrier for enterprises. - Jaeden says this should boost OpenAI usage because many startups and enterprises are embedded on AWS and couldn't easily switch to Azure. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer All this is going to be put onto Bedrock. Now, the reason why this is kind of big news because it's like, okay, great, it's like on another cloud platform. I think a lot of people don't understand that Microsoft Azure had an exclusive deal where opening, I could only be on Microsoft Azure because, you know, Microsoft put $10 billion in And kicked off this whole, you know, wild AI feeding frenzy when ChatGPT first launched. And so OpenAI has been stuck over there. I actually think a lot of the problems that OpenAI has faced, including the fact that Anthropik kind of soared past it with a lot of people using Anthropik and developers in particular And enterprises in particular using Anthropic and Anthropic kind of beating them in revenue. I think a lot of this is the fact that OpenAI was stuck on a platform that was just not the default for a lot of enterprises. I for one know that, you know, my startup AI box, we use AWS for everything we can't. I mean, of course, we could just get an API. And so it's not the end of the world. We have OpenAI models on our platform. But we're built into AWS and we couldn't switch to Azure if we wanted to without having to pay a big bill and doing a whole bunch of extra work. And so it just wasn't a big enough draw for us. And if a lot of the tools inside of OpenAI were exclusively over there, it just makes it so less people will use it. Moving it over to and creating this partnership with AWS, I think we're going to see a massive jump in usage. And it's actually interesting because I was recently talking to some people over at AWS who manage our account for AI Box, some of our sales reps and whatnot. And they specifically have different deals and discounts that they were offering me to switch our usage off of our API onto just like they're like getting the Anthropoc credits directly Through them. And I think they'll now do the same thing with OpenAI. So it's interesting for Amazon, I think this is a great deal for AWS. I think this is a great deal because they're they're kind of working this and they're I'm sure they'll have, you know, they give you like $100,000 in free tokens, but then they'll go and Maybe slightly mark it up or maybe they get a discount as a bulk rate from Anthropoc or OpenAI. There's a bunch of deals that they can swing there. So it's good for startups, but it's also probably really good for their business model and it keeps people embedded into their system. And I think they want to, they really want it to be coming through them. It makes them feel like a bigger customer to OpenAI and Anthropic. The reason why this is a big news deal is because the timing on it was pretty insane. The launch occurred one day after Microsoft and OpenAI's exclusivity deal officially ended. So the second it ended, they immediately were launched on AWS. ([Time 0:01:51](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a1ee5bd6-a9fe-4e36-9434-63614003c043)) - **Turn Layoffs Into Startup And Niche Opportunities** - When layoffs happen, consider entrepreneurship or moving to smaller companies where displaced talent can solve niche problems. - Jaeden argues redistributed talent will spawn startups and niche firms, creating a net positive economic impact long-term. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer They're going into compute, they're going into AI. Some of these things, though, you know, when you're talking about building a data center, this is something that you spend money on and you can that data centers got value for many, many Years into the future. So it feels like a lot of the costs are being front loaded today for benefits that the companies will get in the future. But in order to pay for those costs, they're, you know, they're coming from a painful place of the workforce, and they're getting these new efficiencies from AI that makes it possible. But it's interesting because the company less than focusing on just like pure, you know, while we have all this extra capability, why don't we just give, you know, everyone more access To AI, or and then hire more people and do more and make more, it feels like they're kind of like, look, we have this extra efficiency. So we're going to keep going in our current trajectory, we're going to cut people and continue growing, and then put that money into something else. So it is a painful point on the market. I think, to be honest, there's gonna be a lot of positive things that come out of this, there's gonna be a lot of entrepreneurship, there's gonna be a lot of interesting businesses and Ideas that will happen as people kind of go out on their own. And I think that you'll have a lot of the talent that was previously at Microsoft and Meta trickled down to other smaller software companies, other smaller businesses, more niche areas. And I think that's not necessarily a bad thing. So I know a lot of people probably won't like that opinion because typically when you move from like a Meta or a Google to something less well known, your salary isn't as high. I think overall, though, we're going to solve more problems as a global economy. And globally, it will probably have a net positive economic impact. And a lot of these companies will grow. So I don't know. Maybe that sounds like a crazy take on it. But that's what I believe. And I also believe that the people that are investing heavily in learning and understanding the AI tools that go along with their expertise, learning how to use Cloud Cowork for your Specific job function, those are the people that are the most hireable for their next role. And they're also the people that if you are using all of the AI efficiencies inside of your current role, the most likely to stick around and get promoted inside of your organization. ([Time 0:07:11](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ff01115c-c560-40c9-9a2f-fb816b0cd3f7)) - **Google Convincingly Links AI Spend To Revenue** - Big tech collectively signaled roughly $600 billion in AI CapEx this year, with Google convincing investors it's translating spend into revenue. - Google Cloud reported $20B revenue (+63% YoY) and said it is compute constrained, raising 2026 CapEx guidance to ~$180–190B. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Last night was earnings night for Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon, kind of the big ones. They all hit at the same time. And they collectively are expecting to spend about $600 billion on AI CapEx this year. So a wild number. The stock of Google or Alphabet, right? It went up 6% in after hours trading. And Google is the only company that I think is really convincing Wall Street that the extra money they're spending is bringing in more revenue. So Google has done that where a lot of these other companies I'll talk about weren't unable to. Google Cloud, their quarterly revenue was $20 billion. That's up 63% year over year. Cloud operating income rose 6.6 billion from 2.2 billion in the prior year period, which is phenomenal. Sundar Pichai, the CEO, said on the call, quote, we are compute constrained in the near term. And he also said that the cloud revenue would have been higher if Google could meet demand. Basically, there's so much demand, Google just couldn't, you know, service at all because they didn't have enough compute. And they're like, oh, we'd have more money if we had more compute. So now, so basically that's kind of the perfect setup for them saying, and look, we're going to spend a bunch of money on compute. And, you know, if we have this, we'll be able to make more money. Like there's more demand. So Google is a company that is, I think they have that order correct. Google Cloud backlog is about $460 billion. And their CFO, Anah Ashkenazi, raised the 2026 CapEx guidance to $180 billion to $190 billion, somewhere in that range, which is up from the previous range of $175 to $185 billion. So they have moved their CapEx guidance up. They're going to be spending more, but they're obviously, you know, very clearly saying if we had more compute, we'd be making more money. They said also that the 2027 CapEx will be quote, significant will be quote, a significant increase from what they're doing this year. So if this year they're doing 180 to 190 billion, next year is going to be a significant increase. And I think they're also just kind of setting everyone's expectations. Their spending is going to continue. They're, to make a lot of money from this. ([Time 0:09:24](https://share.snipd.com/snip/21331300-6ab4-4ef1-9702-8ec64a1f2ccd)) - **Wall Street Skeptical Of Meta's AI CapEx Story** - Investors punished Meta despite a 33% revenue beat because Wall Street doubts extra AI CapEx will meaningfully boost ad monetization. - Meta raised 2026 CapEx guidance to $145B and framed the spend as improving ad recommendations and targeting. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Meta's stock fell more than 6% in after hours trading, even though they had a 33% revenue beat. Their Q1 revenue was $56.3 billion. The net income was $26.7 billion for the quarter. This was boosted by an $8 billion tax benefit. Their 2026 CapEx guidance raised, they raised it from $125 billion to $145 billion. Before this, it was at $115 to $135. So on the lower end, they're pushing it up $10 billion. On the higher end, it's up $10 billion as well. So they kind of moved their they moved their capex, you know, expectations up 10 billion dollars. Barg Zuckerberg said that the spending is going to strengthen the ad business by making recommendations more relevant and improving targeting for, you know, Instagram, WhatsApp And Facebook. I mean, this is kind of an interesting this is this is definitely an interesting spot because Zuckerberg is like, look if we spend all this money on AI and, and every, and all our CapEx, Like we'll be able to optimize our ad business and we'll be able to make more relevant, um, you know, ads. And then technically we'll be able to make more money. And that that's his kind of justification for this. Whereas Google obviously is, you know, saying, look, we have, like, they have a cloud, they have a cloud platform that people are paying them to run models off of. And so if they build more compute, they can host more, you know, they can, they can service more customers on their cloud platform. Meta doesn't really have that same pitch. Their pitch is just like, oh, look, we can serve better ads, but it kind of asks, you know, begs the question, like how much more optimized can their ads get? How much more money would that make if they were, you know, slightly some percentage more optimized? It doesn't feel like Wall Street really believes that line from Zuckerberg. And so in an article on Fortune, there is a pretty good framing on this where they said only Google convinced investors that spending more is paying off. It doesn't feel like meta being like, hey, look, we're gonna spend another $10 billion. ([Time 0:11:32](https://share.snipd.com/snip/04b2dd18-ce1d-4006-8b91-169495cfc181)) - **Microsoft's AI Growth Meets Rising CapEx And Investor Worry** - Microsoft reported strong AI revenue growth but bumped CapEx to $190B, and losing OpenAI exclusivity raised investor concerns ahead of earnings. - Azure grew 40% (constant currency) and AI annualized revenue hit $37B (+123% YoY), yet gross margin compressed due to depreciation from data center buildouts. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Their stock fell 3%. Although I don't think it's just for their earnings. It's kind of interesting, too, because a lot of these companies are posting earnings. They're like, look, we beat expectations. And sometimes it's by a lot. And yet, investors are like, well, you beat expectations, but you know, they're like worried about what's going on in the future and where the where the ball is going in the future. So for Microsoft, their stock fell 3%. Their Q3 earnings per share was $4.27. That was adjusted versus the $4.06 expectation, right? So I mean, they're over, they're like 21 cents above the expectation earnings per share, which is, should be great. The revenue was 82.89 billion. I mean, they're, you know, getting close to 83 billion there. Azure and their other cloud service revenue grew 40% in constant currency, which is ahead of the 38%, which Wall Street was kind of guessing. So I mean, you know, it's two points higher than the expectation, which was great. And, you know, on the one hand, you'd be like, okay, amazing. You know, their AI annualized revenue hit 37 billion, it's up 123 year over year. But they also bumped their CapEx guidance to 190 billion. That's up 61% year over year, including a $25 billion impact from some higher component pricing. So they're like, look, a lot of the components we need, they've increased in price, we're gonna spend an extra 25 billion on that. When they bumped their when they bumped their CapEx up, Wall Street did not like that. And I think there's a couple of reasons we talked about one of them. But when they had open AI move off of being exclusively on Azure, I think people are kind of worried about that. And it came right before the earnings report. Their CapEx came in at 31 billion in Q3, which was below the $34 billion analyst consensus. So they actually spent a little bit less than people were expecting in Q3. Their gross margin compressed to 67%. That's the narrowest it's been since 2022, by the way, as you know, I think it's because there's a bunch of depreciation costs from data center buildouts, all that's getting accelerated Right now. What's really interesting to me is on the one hand, I think a lot of people are saying, look, Microsoft kind of lost this exclusive deal with OpenAI. And Microsoft is, by the way, talking quite publicly about the fact that they're like, look, we still have, we don't have to pay royalties on having OpenAI on our platform. And because of that, we don't have to pay royalties till 2032. Satya Nadella, the CEO, literally said that they're going to, quote, exploit not having to pay royalties on that. So I think they're trying to say, look, like that deal broke up, but we have some other like good terms that were in that deal. And it's going to be beneficial for us. So they're trying to kind of like, you know, tell people not to worry about it. ([Time 0:13:33](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c0642944-7aee-4280-9ffb-fa0ed6551400)) - **Using One Chat To Combine 80+ AI Models** - Jaeden plugs his startup AIbox.ai which aggregates 80+ models and offers a single chat interface to mix OpenAI, Google VO, 11 Labs audio, and image/video tools for $8.99/month. - He describes workflows like using Claude for tone, OpenAI for images, Google VO for video, and 11 Labs for audio in one unified chat. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer We have over 80 different AI models in one place, everything from all of the top, you know, AI labs, we have 11 labs for audio, we have tons of cool audio, tons of cool video platforms as Well. We've added video in there. So you can actually use OpenAI's Sora model, you can use Google VO, it's $8.99 a month, you get access to over 80 different models, you know, all types of models, and you use them all in The same chat. I love it because, you know, I use Cloud a lot because it has awesome tone for everything. So I'll have it help me write things, but then it doesn't generate images. And so I'll say, okay, now use opening eyes image generator. And then I can say, okay, now use Google VO to create a video with this kind of concept. And I'll, you know, then be like, okay, I need a, you know, like an audio overview for this. Give me it with 11 labs. All of that is in one chat on one platform. It is incredibly useful and also saves you a ton of money not having to have subscriptions to every single platform. If you want to check it out, it is AI box.ai. It's linked in the description. ([Time 0:16:59](https://share.snipd.com/snip/fcfce852-9fdc-4e05-a754-00d637df8c86)) - **Anthropic's Unprecedented Monthly Revenue Surge** - Anthropic's revenue exploded from $1B annualized end-2024 to reported ~$30–40B by April 2026, implying ~1,400% YoY growth and justifying sky-high investor interest. - Reported month-by-month jumps: $9B end-2025, $14B Feb 2026, $19B March, $30B April, near $40B now. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer And this is why they're able to get so much money. And even OpenAI is kind of struggling in this. At the end of 2024, Anthropic had $1 billion in annualized revenue. At the end of 2025, they were at $9 billion in annualized revenue. At the end of February 2026, they were at $14 billion in annualized revenue. March, $19 billion. April, $30 billion. And reports that right now they're at close to $40 billion. It's like $10 billion every month this year that it feels like we're just going up since March, which is absolutely wild. That equates to about 1,400% year-over growth. ([Time 0:20:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/4f56ad8b-7178-4998-bba1-b5259d27615b)) - **OpenAI Faces Revenue Pressure And Board Scrutiny** - OpenAI missed internal user and revenue targets, and its board scrutinized expensive data center deals, creating funding concerns despite large compute commitments. - Wall Street Journal reported missed billion weekly active user goal and Q1 revenue targets, prompting partner stocks like SoftBank and Oracle to drop. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer So on April 28, the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI missed their internal goal of reaching a billion weekly active users for ChatGPT by the end of 2025. I guess that was what they were trying to get to. The same Wall Street Journal report said that OpenAI missed multiple monthly revenue targets in Q1, 2026 after Anthropic gained a lot of traction. So Anthropic was surging, people were putting money over there and opening. I was getting less. I actually know a lot of people that canceled their open eye subscriptions. Maybe they'll bring it back with some of their new features. The CFO over opening eye, Sarah Fryer, she reportedly warned people inside the company that if the revenue growth doesn't accelerate, the company is going to face a lot of difficult Funding situations in its future, especially for all of their compute commitments, right? So they have all of these big deals with Oracle and with SoftBank, where they're spending like, you know, these $500 billion deal or whatever, for Stargate, and it's gonna be hard for Them to fund all of that if they can't grow their revenue. So it seems like OpenAI and Anthropoc are in completely different places. OpenAI's board directly, reportedly scrutinized the company's recent data center deals. They also questioned Sam Altman's effort to secure even more computing power, even though like the revenue is basically going down and Sam Altman's out there trying to get like tons More computing power. SoftBank Group, their shares dropped about 10% in Asia after this Wall Street Journal report came out. So I think a lot of people actually believed it. Oracle, which has a $300 billion five-year compute partnership with OpenAI, they dropped 4%. Their stock dropped 4% as well on the news. OpenAI publicly has kind of went and pushed back on this. Leadership over there have said that all of the leaders are quote, totally aligned on computing investments. ([Time 0:21:04](https://share.snipd.com/snip/75bf407f-1449-4375-be5f-50797d127597))