Sequoia Capital has raised $7 billion for a new fund under Alfred Lin and Pat Grady, focusing on AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic. This marks a shift in strategy, allowing investments in competing companies within the same sector.

Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.7, announced on April 17, enhances cybersecurity with safeguards against high-risk requests. It improves coding and image handling performance but is less capable than the limited-release Mythos Preview. Feedback from this release will guide future models.

The U.S. government plans to provide Anthropic's Mythos AI model to federal agencies, addressing cybersecurity concerns. Despite past tensions, they aim to ensure safeguards are established for safe usage amidst increasing interest in AI technology.

OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google are collaborating to combat Chinese competitors’ efforts to enhance AI capabilities by extracting outputs from U.S. models, sharing information through the Frontier Model Forum to address adversarial data distillation.

Anthropic has introduced an identity verification system for Claude, utilizing Persona for photo ID submission and potential live selfie checks to prevent misuse. Verification data remains confidential, with retries allowed for failed attempts. Accounts may face suspension for policy violations or age restrictions.

Anthropic opposes Illinois bill SB 3444, which would protect AI labs from liability if they create safety frameworks. Governor Pritzker condemns the bill, while OpenAI supports it for reducing risk. Critics warn it could diminish legal accountability.

Fluidstack is in talks to raise $1 billion at an $18 billion valuation, following a significant deal with Anthropic. The startup, leveraging former Bitcoin miners to build custom data centers, signals a shift in AI companies toward dedicated infrastructure, creating new revenue opportunities.

Anthropic announced on April 14 that it is partnering with the lobbying firm Ballard Partners, aiming to improve its relationship with the Department of Defense. The two sides had previously failed to reach an agreement due to disagreements over the scope of AI use: the Department of Defense wanted its tools to be used without restrictions, while Anthropic demanded limits on their use for fully autonomous weapons and surveillance. This move signals a significant increase in policy outreach investment in the AI industry.

Gate News message. On April 14, the Financial Times reported that OpenAI investors questioned its $852 billion valuation, saying the company’s strategy is shifting. Some investors said these strategic changes may make OpenAI more vulnerable to threats from competitors such as Anthropic and Google.

Gate News message: On April 13, according to the network status monitoring site DownDetector, users reported issues with the Claude AI service. Claude is an AI assistant product launched by Anthropic.