E239: AI Giants Surge: Anthropic $350B, xAI $230B, Databricks $130B+, Ramp $32B, Kraken $20B, Kalshi $11B, Suno $2.45B, more

0:00Aaron Dillon here, Managing Director of AG Dillon & Co. Here is the pre-IPO stock update for November 21st, 2025. Anthropic is deepening its ties to Microsoft and NVIDIA through a package of investments and compute commitments worth tens of billions, including up to$15 billion in fresh capital and a binding agreement to buy$30 billion of Azure compute powered by up to one gigawatt of NVIDIA, Grace Blackwell, and Vera Rubin systems. The video loan will invest up to$10 billion and Microsoft up to$5 billion, lifting Anthropics valuation towards the$350 billion range, compared with$183 billion in September when it raised$13 billion and reported 300 ,000 business customers.

0:44The company is accelerating its build out of U.S. infrastructure with a$50 billion plan for custom data centers in Texas and New York while expanding cloud partnerships, such as a deal for up to 1 billion Google AI chips. The investment comes amid scrutiny over circular AI deals that funnel billions among cloud providers, chip makers and labs. Microsoft shares slid 3 % and NVIDIA 1 % as investors question sustainability. sustainability. Anthropics model, long absent from Azure, will now join Microsoft's Foundry lineup, supporting a strategy that diversifies away from Microsoft's$135 billion OpenAI stake, representing 25 % of OpenAI's equity.

1:25Amazon remains Anthropics' primary cloud and training partner after an$8 billion investment in large-scale AWS chip deployment, positioning the firm to compete directly with OpenAI as both companies chase enterprise demand in finance and healthcare. XAI is negotiating a$15 billion equity round at a$230 billion valuation up sharply from the$113 billion valuation disclosed in March when it acquired X and following a June raise of$5 billion in equity and$5 billion in debt that included$2 billion investment from SpaceX. The company is racing to finance the infrastructure required for its Colossus Data Center in Memphis as AI startups prepare for trillions of dollars in compute spending, leaving them in permanent fundraising mode.

2:14Musk has stated publicly that Tesla may invest in XAI through Tesla's board and chair have openly questioned the logic and required diligence. XAI has been dealing with senior leadership turnover, including departures of X's CEO and CFOs of both X and XAI as it scales its GROC model to compete with OpenAI. Musk responded false to early investors, or early reports, I should say, of the raise, but investors' briefing from his wealth manager confirmed that the plan structure and target valuation. Musk said XAI will partner with NVIDIA and Saudi Arabia's Humane to build a 500-megawatt data center in the kingdom, a facility large enough to power several hundred thousand homes for a year as part of a broader push by U.S.

3:00AI firms into Middle Eastern-rich markets rich in land, energy, and sovereign capital. The announcement was made at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum alongside executives, government officials, and President Trump, who promoted Saudi investment and denied the Crown Prince's acknowledgement of a 2018 Khashoggi killing. The U.S. is preparing to approve exports of advanced AI chips to humane and guardrails to prevent diversion to China. Large U.S. firms, including Amazon, AMD, Cisco, and Blackstone, are building out their own one gigawatt plus data center footprints in Saudi Arabia. AMD, Cisco, and Humane alone are deploying one gigawatt, twice XAI's target.

3:43The expansion comes as XAI is seeking a$15 billion,$230 billion valuation, competing with OpenAI and others for the largest, most advanced model training clusters. Musk and Grok said Grok 5 will launch in Q1 next year, slipping past his earlier target of year-end 2025 and will feature six trillion parameter, double the three trillion parameters used in Grok 3 and 4. He also iterated that Tesla may build its own chip fabrication plant unless existing suppliers like TSMC and Samsung can produce between$100 billion and$200 billion AI chips annually within the time frame Tesla requires for vehicles and the Optimus robot line.

4:29The accelerated compute demand reflects XAI's strategy for scaling Grok as a competitive alternative to ChatGPT while leveraging Tesla's robotics ambitions to justify internal chip capacity. Databricks is in talks to raise$3 billion to$5 billion at a valuation above$130 billion, which would mark a 30 % increase from its$100 billion valuation in September when it raised a billion. The company reported$4 billion in annual sales in July, excuse me, annualized sales in July, up 50 % year over year, and$1 billion coming from AI products with free cash flow, positive performance over the prior 12 months.

5:08Databricks has raised more than$15 billion, employs nearly 10 ,000 people, and has become a direct competitor to Snowflake, Oracle, AWS, and Microsoft as it moves aggressively into transactional databases and AI agent platforms. CEO Ali Godowsi said that 80 % of databases created this year were created by AI agents, compared with 30 % the prior year. Databricks also acquired open source database startup Neon for a billion dollars and viewed as a near-term IPO candidate as investors continue to compete for infrastructure-heavy AI companies, despite raising bubble warnings, including exits from NVIDIA by Thiel, Macro, and SoftBank in bearish positions from Michael Burry.

5:55Ramp reached a$32 billion valuation after raising$300 million alongside an employee tender, rising from$22.5 billion in July and$16 billion only 45 days before that, and annualized revenue doubled from$500 million to$1 billion within a year. The company serves more than 50 ,000 customers up from 40 ,000 five months ago, including 2 ,200 generating at least$100 ,000 in revenue. New investors include Robinhood Ventures, Bessemer, 1789 Capital, joining longtime backers, founders fund D1, KOTU, Ramp, excuse me, KOTU, and Lightspeed, which called Ramp one of its highest conviction investments. Ramp is deploying fleets of AI agents that automate expense audits, invoice payments, procurement workflows, travel management, and removing large volumes of manual work as enterprise adoption accelerates.

6:47Kraken raised$800 million across two tranches, including a$200 million strategic investment from Citadel Security at a$20 billion valuation and previously unconfirmed$600 million round at a$15 billion valuation from Jane Street, DRW, HSG, Oppenheimer and Tribe Capital and the family office of co-CEO Arjun Siti. Prior to these raises, Kraken had secured only$27 million in primary capital since its 2011 founding. Kraken reported$1.5 billion in 2024 revenue and surpassed that figure in the first three quarters of 2025, including$648 million in Q3 revenue, more than doubling year over year. The company acquired NinjaTrader for$1.5 billion and is preparing for an early 2026 IPO.

7:35After confidentially filing in the U.S., Citadel's investment signal, a strategic shift as the U.S. as a 25-year-old market maker expands into digital assets and begins transacting on major exchanges, including Coinbase and Binance. Calci raised over a billion dollars at an$11 billion valuation, more than doubling its$5 billion valuation from only two months earlier and positioning alongside rival Polymarket, which is pursuing a$12 billion to$15 billion raise after an$8 billion pre-money round. CalShield's annualized trading volume surged to$50 billion in mid-October, up from about$300 million last year, representing a thousand-fold increase driven by heavy election activity and high-profile accuracy, including correctly predicting New York's mayoral race.

8:23The company's subway ad campaign shows live odds for the Mandami-Cuomo race, boosting brand visibility across New York. CalShe operates in over 140 countries and won a lawsuit against the CFTC that secured U.S. access through several states. Although several states continue to argue its markets constitute illegal gambling. Its founders, both MIT graduates and former hedge fund traders, are scaling the platform as prediction markets gain mainstream financial relevance. fair completed an employee tender at 5.2 billion valuation led by wcm investment management with participation from galley valley gilford and true north fund providing liquidity as the company remains private after a valuation peak of 12.4 billion in 2021 and decline of 5 billion in 2023 fair's marketplace now supports hundreds of thousands of retailers and brands generating nearly$3 billion in GMV this year.

9:23GMV growth has accelerated for eight straight quarters, and revenue has surpassed a$500 million annualized run rate with more than 40 % year-over-year growth in Q3. Secondary transactions have become a key tool for tech companies to extend runway while offering early employees liquidity ahead of IPO timelines. Aptronic is raising at least$400 million at a$5 billion valuation, more than tripling its valuation from earlier this year after raising$450 million from investors, including Capital Factory and B Capital. Google will participate in the new round and is supplying deep-mined AI models that power Apollo.

9:59That's Aptronic's humanoid robot. Apollo is already deployed in Mercedes-Benz factories, GXO logistics warehouses, and Jebill manufacturing facilities and uses Fisonic robotic hands that double as prosthetic devices. Aptronic has raised over $850 million to date and is a part of a rapidly escalating humanoid race involving Tesla's Optimus, X-Pengs, Office Assistant Robots, Figure AIs, Household Task Robots, and a new venture from Andy Rubin. Also, 1X Technologies is in there. The company was founded by University of Texas robotics researchers, including veterans of NASA's 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge, and is scaling manufacturing as humanoids move closer to commercial viability.

10:44Tensor is negotiating an$800 million raise at a valuation of about$3.2 billion, up 60 % from its last year before new capital, and a Fidelity-led round. The company has executed about$150 million in deals to date and only recently achieved meaningful revenue after selling AI systems to customers in Japan. TenStor employs roughly 1 ,100 staff and builds RISC-V-based AI processors designed to be cheaper and more power efficient than NVIDIA GPUs. CEO Jim Keller, who previously designed Apple's A4 and A5 chips and led Tesla's autopilot hardware program, is building a CUDA alternative to break NVIDIA's software lock-in.

11:29The company has raised over$1 billion from investors, including Samsung Securities, AFW Partners, and Fidelity as it competes with Service, Grok, Etched, Revos, and others pursuing alternatives to NVIDIA's core GPU architecture. Function Health raised$298 million in a$2.5 billion valuation led by Redpoint Ventures, bringing total funding to$350 million as it builds a doctor-trained medical intelligence generative AI model that integrates lab tests, imaging, wearables, and clinical notes. This company has completed more than 50 million lab tests since 2023 and gives members access to 2 ,000 Quest diagnostic locations, along with advanced MRI scanning at 130 centers, scaling to 200 by late 2025.

12:18Function positions itself as device agnostic and more clinically integrated than rivals such as SuperPower, Niko Health, and Insight Tracker. Its platform offers personalized guidance through an AI chatbot that analyzes historical results, scans, and physician documentation, all under HIPAA-level encryption and a no-date sale policy. The AI lab is led by medical scientists, including Dr. Dan Sodison and Dr. Mark Hyman, who oversee clinical training of the model. suno raised 250 million in a series c at a 2.45 billion valuation up from roughly 500 million in may 2024 when it raised 125 million in a series b led by light speed nat friedman daniel gross matrix and and the founder collective the company has reached 200 million dollars in annual revenue through a freemium consumer model with paid tiers at eight dollars and 24 per month at a commercial product launched in September.

13:20Despite explosive traction, Sunio faces major lawsuits from Sony Universal, Warner Coda, and Gemma, alleging unauthorized training on copyrighted music scraped from the web. Gemma also won a related suit against OpenAI. Investors remain unconcerned as user growth spreads largely through word of mouth and group text sharing. Sunio is viewed as a leading example of AI creativity outpacing the legal framework as generative music enters mainstream adoption. Jeff Bezos is returning to hands-on operational leadership as co-CEO of Project Prometheus, an AI company that has raised$6.2 billion to build products for engineering, aerospace, automotive, and other physical economy sectors.

14:06He shares the role with Vic Bajaj, former head of Google's Life Sciences division and co-founder of Barely and Foresight Labs. Prometheus is building simulation-driven AI systems similar to those developed by Periodic Labs, focusing on scientific modeling to speed up development cycles in manufacturing and hardware. The company already employs about 100 researchers and engineers from meta OpenAI Google DeepMind and represents Bezos' first operational return since stepping back from Amazon in 2021. Thinking Machines Labs, founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Mirati, aims to raise $4 billion to$5 billion at a valuation of at least$50 billion.

14:51After previously raising$2 billion at a$10 billion valuation, the nine-month-old Neolab plans to use the capital for compute and researcher hiring as it explores alternative AI architectures that may avoid limitations of current LLMs. In October, the company launched Tinker. It's an API for fine-tuning open source models tied to company-specific performance indicators and business metrics. It also plans to release a consumer AI assistant. The raise would triple its capital base and position as one of the fastest funded labs in the industry. Lambda raised more than$1.5 billion in a Series E led by TWG Global following a$480 million Series D in February at an estimated$2.5 billion valuation, bringing total funding to$2.3 billion.

15:41The company recently signed a multi-billion dollar deal to supply Microsoft with tens of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs, expanding beyond its role as a core weave competitor and into supplying AI infrastructure directly to hyperscalers. Lambda operates U.S. data centers and plans to transition from leasing facilities to owning and designing them to vertically integrate GPU capacity. TWG's$40 billion platform includes a$15 billion AI fund anchored by Mutabala and previously partnerships with XAI and Palantir, underscoring strong institutional appetite for AI compute. Lambda employs more than 400 employees and sits at the center of the neocloud market characterized by rapid expansion and uncertain durability should AI demand cool.

16:31Blue Origin unveiled a super heavy New Glenn 9x4 rocket configuration that will be taller than the Saturn V and comparable to SpaceX's Starship with nine BE-4 engines on its booster and four on the upper stage, up from seven and two in the current New Glenn 7x2. The upgraded vehicle can carry over 70 metric tons to low Earth orbit, positioning it just below Starship's 100-ton theoretical capacity. The rocket features a significantly larger fairing for mega constellations, lunar missions, deep space payloads, in national security programs such as Golden Dome. Blue Origin also updated its 7x2 version with more thrust and reusable fairings to reduce turnaround time.

17:17The next launch is targeted for early 2026, and CEO Dave Lemp said that the company may soon attempt to land its Blue Moon Mark I lunar lander on the moon. Starlink launched a new$40 per month residential 100 megabytes plan offering unlimited data, uncapped upload speeds, and free hardware and installation, expanding its U.S. residential lineup that also includes$80,$120 tiers. Musk called it a super good deal for regions without full network saturation. The pricing updates come after Starlink surpassed 10 ,000 deployed satellites during the Falcon 9's 31st flight. And as SpaceX prepares to offer continuous video calls, messaging, data via direct-to-sell, partnerships with T-Mobile.

18:08The plan is part of SpaceX's push to deepen consumer adoption while managing network capacity. Emirates plans to adopt Starlink across its fleet of roughly 250 wide-body aircraft, that's Emirates Airlines, for more than 300 incoming Boeing and Airbus jets, pending UAE approval and a380 certification marking one of starlink's largest aviation wins the the deal follows qatar airways rollout on boeing 777s and a350 retrofits saudi uh saudi arabia's uh agreements with starlink and pitches to gulf air and fly dubai bahrain jordan and lebanon have already authorized Starlink and Saudi approval is expected after discussions with during President Trump's visit.

19:00A win with Emirates would give Starlink a premium global showcase on the world's most profitable international airline upgrades in flight connectivity. Target will launch a ChatGPT shopping app next week that will let its customers browse and build multi-item baskets, shop food, get ideas, and checkout directly inside ChatGPT as part of OpenAI's push into retail commerce. Target will also deploy ChatGPT Enterprise to 18 ,000 headquarters employees to improve supply chain forecasting and store operations workflows. The partnership also expands Target's existing use of OpenAI models across customer service, gift recommendations, and employee support tools and follows OpenAI's rollout of retail integrations with Canva, Coursera, Figma, Expedia, Spotify, and Zillow.

19:51OpenAI is building AI-driven commerce features like instant checkout to drive transaction volume through ChatGPT. Perplexity launched its Comet AI browser on Android with iOS AnyDayNow, extending a desktop rollout that began in July and expanded in October and positioning the company to target mobile traffic that accounts for nearly 70 % of global internet usage. Comet integrates Perplexity AI's search engine to answer questions across open tabs, summarized web pages, perform research and shopping tasks autonomously, accept the voice commands and block ads. Wireless carriers and device makers have requested inclusion of Comet and Motorola already preloads Perplexity on apps on its device.

20:40The company plans to add controversial conversational agents, excuse me, shortcuts and full password manager. Comic competes with AI browsers from OpenAI, Opera, and Atlassian-owned Arc, though most alternatives remain desktop only. And Perplexity has publicly acknowledged that agent-based browsing introduces new security challenges requiring redesigned safeguards. Okay, that's it for me this week. Thanks and see you guys next week.