Brought to you by:
Top stories today:
- Anthropic now in talks to raise $20B, up from $10B, at $350B valuation
- Fed seen holding rates as political pressure on Powell grows
- OpenAI said to seek up to $30B more from SoftBank
- UnitedHealth, Humana hit as Medicare holds line on 2027 payments
- Altman tells OpenAI staff ICE actions āgo too farā
- Samsungās TriFold to debut in U.S. Jan. 30 at $2,899
0. Data and calendar
All values as of 6 AM ET / 3 AM PT, other than S&P500 and NASDAQ close (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT).
All times are ET.
Listen to our AI-generated podcast summarizing todayās newsletter (beware of hallucinations):
1. Anthropic now in talks to raise $20B, up from $10B, at $350B valuation, led by GIC and Coatue
Investor interest 5-6x the original target.
Another $15B from Microsoft and NVIDIA could also happen.
Anthropic is said to lift its revenue forecast to $18B in 2026, $148B by 2029
Anthropic is expecting its gross margins to rise to ~63% in 2026 and ~70% in 2027, up from ~40% in 2025
~$7B in inference costs is projected for 2026 and ~$16B for 2027, up 36% and 71% from prior forecasts.
Anthropic is also targeting EBITDA-positive for 2028 with ~$6B in EBITDA and ~$2.2B in positive cash flow
2. Fed seen holding rates as political pressure on Powell grows
3.50%-3.75% is the target range for Federal Reserve officials.
3 straight cuts have occurred since Sep. 2025.
2:30 p.m. ET: Fed Chair Powell speaks at the FOMC press conference after the meeting.
Powellās 1st press conference since grand jury subpoenas were served to the Fed.
Trump is weighing 4 Fed chair finalists but is struggling to find someone who will both cut rates and retain market credibility.
Broad policymaker support for holding rates steady is expected.
Good models start with strong statistical foundations. You need data scientists who can blend statistics, ML, SQL, and Python to uncover whatās happening, why it matters, and what to do about it.
Statistics and ML fundamentals
End-to-end data workflows
Production-ready analysis
This is the kind of talent you get with Athynaāvetted LATAM data scientists working in U.S.-aligned time zones.
*Disclaimer: We have equity in Athyna.
4. OpenAI said to seek up to $30B more from SoftBank
OpenAI is reportedly raising up to $100B, implying a valuation of up to $830B:
