Welcome to Tuesday’s Newsletter

In today’s scoop 🍨 

• Anthropic Bags $3.5B

• Perplexity’s ‘Comet’ Browser

• AI Trump’s Foot Fetish Scandal at HUD

• 🔧 3 Trending AI Tools

💰 Anthropic Bags $3.5B

The AI money train isn’t slowing down, and Anthropic just secured a first-class ticket. The makers of Claude, one of OpenAI’s biggest rivals, are finalizing a $3.5 billion funding round, pushing their valuation to $61.5 billion. That’s nearly 3.5x their previous valuation—turns out, AI hype pays well.

🤝 The Deal

• 💰 Anthropic initially planned to raise $2 billion, but investor enthusiasm cranked that number up to $3.5 billion.

• 📈 Heavyweights like Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Bessemer Venture Partners, and MGX (an Abu Dhabi-based firm) are backing the round.

• 🏆 The company has now raised a total of $18 billion to date.

🤖 The Claude Effect

Anthropic’s flagship chatbot, Claude, continues to be a serious competitor in the AI race. They just launched Claude 3.7 Sonnet, an upgraded model promising sharper reasoning and faster responses. While OpenAI’s ChatGPT dominates consumer mindshare, Claude is carving out a niche among developers and enterprises.

🌍 The Bigger Picture

• 📉 Anthropic is still losing money but is pulling in an estimated $1.2 billion in annualized revenue.

• 💵 Investors are still throwing cash at AI, even as China’s DeepSeek emerges as a serious competitor with lower-cost alternatives.

• 🤯 OpenAI is reportedly in talks for its own monster funding round—possibly $40 billion at a $300 billion valuation.

🔑 Takeaway

AI investment is still sizzling hot, and Anthropic’s latest round shows that the big bets on foundational AI models aren’t cooling off. Whether this leads to actual long-term dominance—or just a wild VC-fueled bubble—remains to be seen. 

🚀 Perplexity’s ‘Comet’ Browser

Looks like Perplexity isn’t content just disrupting search—it wants a piece of your browser, too. The AI-powered search startup just teased Comet, its upcoming web browser, but details? Scarce. So far, all we’ve got is a name, a sign-up list, and a vague promise that it will “reinvent the browser.” No screenshots, no feature list—just vibes.

But here’s what we can infer:

✅ AI-first experience – 🤖 If Perplexity’s search is any indication, Comet could deeply integrate AI, potentially offering real-time research, smarter recommendations, and maybe even search that doesn’t suck.

✅ Agentic search – 🔍 This buzzword hints at a browser that does things, not just shows things. Think automated research, task execution, and AI-assisted browsing.

✅ Tough competition – 🌍 Chrome dominates the browser market, and startups like The Browser Company’s Arc (and its upcoming Dia browser) are also betting on AI-enhanced browsing. Perplexity will need more than just search integration to stand out.

Of course, all of this depends on execution. Will Comet be a true game-changer, or just another Chromium skin with some AI sugar on top? Either way, we’re watching closely—but maybe not from Chrome for much longer.

🔥 Would you ditch Chrome for an AI-powered browser? Hit reply and let us know.

👣 AI Trump’s Foot Fetish Scandal at HUD

AI-generated deepfakes just hit a new level. This week, HUD employees found their office TVs hijacked, playing a looping video of Trump kissing Musk’s bare feet. Nothing like some AI chaos to kick off the workweek.

The video, running for five agonizing minutes, featured the phrase “LONG LIVE THE REAL KING”, a clear jab at Trump’s recent self-anointed title. Staff scrambled to shut it off, eventually resorting to manually unplugging monitors—an ironic testament to the power of low-tech solutions.

💡 The Backstory

• 🏢 Musk, now head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been slashing federal jobs and demanding employees justify their existence in five bullet points—or risk “resignation.”

• 🤝 Trump and Musk’s bromance has been heating up, despite reports that literally everyone in Trump’s Cabinet is sick of Musk.

• 👑 The phrase “LONG LIVE THE REAL KING” has been circulating in Trump’s inner circle, fueling speculation that some government insiders aren’t thrilled about Musk’s growing influence.

💥 The Fallout

HUD employees were horrified, with one worker overheard saying, “Someone’s gonna get fired.” Officials called it “another waste of taxpayer dollars,” a bold take from an agency facing Musk-driven budget cuts. No one has claimed responsibility, but whether it was an inside job, a rogue hacker, or AI having a bit of fun, one thing is clear—AI-generated chaos has now evolved from online pranks to real-world disruptions. The real question? Who in the White House is next on AI’s hit list.

🔧3 Trending AI Tools

• 🧠 Claude 3.7 Sonnet & Claude Code - A hybrid reasoning model that adapts to quick responses or deep, step-by-step thinking. Plus, Claude Code introduces an agentic AI coding assistant.

• 🖼️ Phedra X - Chrome extension for instant AI-powered image editing—enhance quality, remove objects, and change backgrounds directly in your browser, no software needed.

• 🤖 Zapier Agents - Build custom AI agents in minutes to automate tasks across 7,000+ apps, using live business data to work on command or while you sleep.

That’s a wrap for today!

Here’s one for you: What’s the smartest or funniest thing you’ve seen AI do recently? Hit reply and let us know! We love hearing your AI discoveries.

And if you’ve got a friend who’s into AI, pass this along and help grow the community! 🚀

Until tomorrow—stay curious! 👋