TechFlow Intelligence Agency: Anthropic plans to raise $50 billion at a $90 billion valuation, Zcash surges 70% in one week

AI / Large Models

Anthropic’s new funding round valuation may reach 900 billion USD, planning to raise 50 billion

Pre-money valuation is approximately 90 billion USD, becoming the second-largest AI unicorn globally after OpenAI.

FT

Anthropic releases natural language autoencoder research, transforming Claude’s “thinking” into text

Using autoencoder technology to map internal model representations into readable text, opening a new direction for interpretability research.

Anthropic

Google releases AlphaEvolve, Gemini-driven programming agent capable of cross-domain expansion

From biomedicine to materials science, automated programming agents are beginning to enter practical laboratory applications.

Google DeepMind

Hot Take: Anthropic’s valuation approaches 100 billion USD, Claude shifts from “safety-focused” to “profit-driven,” and OpenAI’s competitor finally has real financial firepower.

DeepSeek 4 Flash local inference engine supports Metal, open-source implementation by developer antirez

Metal acceleration allows Mac users to run DeepSeek 4 locally, further improving local inference toolchains.

GitHub

Mozilla partners with Claude Mythos Preview to enhance Firefox security

AI models are beginning to directly participate in browser security reinforcement, a new paradigm for tech and security research collaboration.

Mozilla Hacks

Cryptocurrency / Web3

Zcash surges 70% in a week, privacy coin sector regains attention

Rising privacy narratives and regulatory changes may open new opportunities for privacy coins.

Cointelegraph

Strait of Hormuz tensions flare again, US-Iran clashes drive V-shaped rebound in oil prices

Three US destroyers crossing the strait are attacked by Iran; after US retaliation, Trump claims “destroyed them,” causing increased volatility in oil and risk assets.

CNN | White House Twitter

People’s Bank of China increases gold reserves for 18th consecutive month

Continued risk aversion and de-dollarization trends, with central bank gold reserves reaching a 14-month high for monthly increases.

Wall Street Journal

Semiconductors / Hardware

SK Hynix pays hundreds of thousands of yuan in bonuses per person due to AI boom, Samsung employees threaten strike

Explosive demand for storage chips results in huge bonuses for SK Hynix employees; Samsung faces strike pressure due to pay disparities.

Hot Topic: Income gap within the semiconductor industry is further widening due to AI.

Zhihu

TSMC’s April revenue hits 410.73 billion NTD, up 17.5% year-over-year

Ongoing demand for AI chips continues to drive TSMC’s performance growth.

Sino Market Twitter

Nvidia’s “darling” CoreWeave reports earnings tonight, stock has already surged 245%

Market concerns over overvaluation, increased competition, and customer concentration risks.

Wall Street Journal

Tech Companies

Cloudflare announces approximately 20% layoffs, over 1,100 employees

Cloud service giant shrinks significantly amid economic uncertainty, layoffs are rare in recent years.

Hot Topic: The wave of layoffs in tech companies is not over, even in high-growth sectors.

Reuters

Hot Take: Cloudflare cuts one-fifth of its staff, and the slogan “We protect the Internet” now seems a bit ironic—unable to protect its own employees’ livelihoods.

Sony PS5 sales plummet, memory crisis and price hikes are main reasons

Rising storage chip costs forced Sony to raise prices, leading to a drop in sales.

The Verge

Apple’s camera-equipped AirPods nearing mass production, paving the way for AI features

Camera AirPods may be used for spatial computing and AI-assisted scene recognition.

The Verge

US Stocks

Kodiak AI raises $100 million at a significant discount, stock plunges 37% in a single day

Discounted valuation financing triggers market panic, and the bubble in autonomous trucking company valuations begins to burst.

TechCrunch

US-Iran negotiations cloud suppress risk sentiment, US stocks close lower

Hormuz Strait tensions keep market sentiment cautious, offshore RMB hits a four-year high during trading.

Wall Street Journal

New Products / Trends

World’s first dual-core neutral atom quantum computer “Han Yuan 2” released, total power consumption under 7 kW

Chinese quantum computing makes new progress with neutral atom approach, consuming only a fraction of superconducting methods.

IT之家

Russia releases Starlink competitor Rassvet satellite network

Geopolitical factors drive the development of independent satellite internet, intensifying space infrastructure competition.

Wired

Hot Take: The quantum computer consumes 7 kW, roughly the same as three household air conditioners—finally small enough to fit in a lab instead of a power plant.

Today’s Underlying Trends

AI valuation surges, tech layoffs, geopolitical tensions escalate—today’s headlines seem like three parallel lines, but all point to the same anxiety: where is the growth limit? Anthropic’s $50 billion funding bet on AGI’s future, Cloudflare’s layoffs to preserve cash flow, and the fire in the Strait of Hormuz remind us how fragile the global supply chain is. Money is flowing toward the most certain future while retreating from the most uncertain present.