BNPL lenders like Flex, Zip, and Affirm are now pitching loans for basic household needs; Americans spent $160B through pay-later loans in 2025, up 2x from 2023 — The rapid growth of pay-later loans raises questions about whether their popularity is driven by consumer preference or desperation.
Sources: Anthropic's revenue run rate reached $65B by the end of July, up from $47B in May and $9B in late 2025 — Anthropic PBC is on track to generate annualized revenue of more than $65 billion based on its current performance, according to people familiar with the matter …
African defense tech company Terra Industries, founded in 2024, raised a $52M seed round from 8VC and others, and says it's on track to book $100M in contracts — African defense tech company Terra Industries on Monday announced an additional $18 million in funding, bringing its seed round to $52 million.
A look at companies like Inception Point creating AI personas for media, fashion, film, and music industries that could host podcasts, model clothes, and more — The A.I. personas created by Inception Point AI include, clockwise from top left, Claire Delish, VV Steele, Nigel Thistledown and Lila Walker.Inception Point AI
How a Claude model made a math breakthrough during its unsuccessful 54-hour attempt to solve the Riemann hypothesis after a user repeatedly encouraged it — The world's smartest AI models are now superhuman at math. They still respond to moral support and encouragement from mere humans.
French PM Lecornu will hold a crisis meeting Monday over a June-July cyberattack on France's tax agency that compromised 678K individual and business accounts — French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu will hold a crisis meeting Monday to respond to the cyberattack disclosed last week targeting the country's tax collection agency.
Sources: Stripe has finalized a deal to acquire AI model marketplace OpenRouter for more than $7B; OpenRouter was valued at $1.3B in May — Stripe Inc. has finalized an agreement to acquire OpenRouter Inc., a startup that helps companies switch between artificial intelligence models …