Samwise Tech/AI/Robotics Newsletter
Monday, June 1, 2026
Anthropic Closes $65 Billion Round, Nears $1 Trillion Valuation Ahead of IPO
Anthropic closed a $65 billion Series H round on Thursday at a $965 billion post-money valuation, marking what the company describes as likely its final private fundraise before an IPO. The round was co-led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia Capital, Capital Group, Coatue, and D1 Capital Partners, with Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron also participating. A $15 billion portion comprises previously committed hyperscaler investments, including a $5 billion pledge from Amazon. Anthropic said its annualized revenue run rate crossed $47 billion in May. The Wall Street Journal reported the company expects a 130% revenue surge that would bring it to its first operating profit.
Sources: TechCrunch
Leaked Renders Reveal Apple’s Standalone Siri App and Full AI Overhaul for iOS 27
Bloomberg published leaked renders Thursday showing Apple’s planned AI overhaul for iOS 27, including a redesigned Siri experience and a new standalone Siri app meant to compete directly with ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. In the new design, Siri responses will emerge from the iPhone’s Dynamic Island for quick queries. A swipe-down gesture will open AI-powered Spotlight Search drawing on a rebuilt Siri model that uses Google Gemini technology. The standalone app will surface past chat history and support document and photo uploads. Apple’s install base of 2.5 billion devices gives it an unmatched distribution advantage over ChatGPT’s 900 million weekly active users.
Sources: TechCrunch
Anthropic Releases Claude Opus 4.8 With Dynamic Workflows for Multi-Agent Coordination
Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.8 on Thursday—just 41 days after Opus 4.7—with a focus on honesty and reduced unsupported claims in agentic workflows. Bridgewater Associates, an early tester, noted the upgrade was defined by “Opus 4.8’s tendency to proactively flag issues with the inputs and outputs of an analysis, something other models routinely missed.” The release includes Dynamic Workflows, now in research preview, which lets Claude Code manage complex tasks across hundreds of parallel subagents and handle codebase-scale migrations with the existing test suite as its benchmark. Anthropic also said its more powerful Mythos model is expected to reach all customers “in the coming weeks” once safety safeguards are finalized.
Sources: TechCrunch
Sesame, From Oculus Founders, Launches Public iOS App With Four Distinct AI Agents
Sesame, an AI startup co-founded by Oculus creators, launched a public iOS preview Thursday, bringing four conversational AI agents—Maya, Miles, Simone, and Charlie—to 39 countries. Each agent has its own voice, personality, and persistent memory, designed for more natural conversation than conventional chatbots. Sesame built fast parallel search and retrieval systems so agents can weave new information into responses mid-sentence, addressing the tension between quick and thoughtful replies. The app, backed by a $250 million Sequoia-led Series B, was accessed by over a million users during a prior Research Preview. The experience is free for now; an Android preview and AI eyewear hardware are also planned.
Sources: TechCrunch
Visa Invests in Replit to Build Infrastructure for AI Agent-Driven Payments
Visa announced an undisclosed investment in AI coding platform Replit on Thursday, with both companies exploring how Replit developers—and their AI agents—can accept payments through Visa’s infrastructure. More than 1,000 Visa employees already use Replit for prototyping and development. The two are exploring integration of Visa Intelligent Commerce, its AI-powered payments suite, alongside Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol, which lets AI agents authenticate themselves during transactions. Replit is simultaneously launching self-serve enterprise access allowing companies to sign contracts up to $200,000 without a salesperson. The move reflects a growing industry race to establish agentic payment infrastructure, with Robinhood and Google also advancing AI-driven financial services.
Sources: TechCrunch
NIST Proposes First Standardized Humanoid Robot Performance Benchmark Since 2015
The National Institute of Standards and Technology proposed the first standardized performance benchmark for humanoid robots since the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge, according to a report published Friday. NIST described the proposal as a “low-footprint set of locomotion and manipulation tasks” using previously defined and standardized test methods, representing minimum physical capabilities for commercially available humanoids across industrial, household, and healthcare settings. NIST plans to fabricate a limited number of testing apparatuses for free distribution to U.S. humanoid manufacturers and regional testing facilities, with 3D models published for virtual use. A NIST Humanoids 2026 competition is scheduled for the IEEE Humanoids conference in December in Silicon Valley.
Sources: The Robot Report
Meta Reportedly Plans AI Pendant Device, Expanding Hardware Push Beyond Smart Glasses
Meta is developing an AI-powered pendant and plans to begin testing within the next year, according to a company memo viewed by The Information. The device would build on Meta’s acquisition of Limitless at the end of 2025—a startup that made a clip-on AI pendant for recording and processing conversations. The same memo outlines plans to expand Meta’s lineup of AI smart glasses and launch a business subscription service called Wearables for Work. The moves come as Meta’s Reality Labs hardware division posted a $4 billion loss in the first quarter of 2026, underscoring continued pressure to find AI hardware that consumers will actually adopt.
Sources: TechCrunch
Tech Pulse
Top Frontier Models (SWE-bench Verified): Claude Mythos Preview (93.9%) | Claude Opus 4.8 (88.6%) | Claude Opus 4.7 Adaptive (87.6%)
Top Open Source Models (SWE-bench Verified): DeepSeek-V4-Pro-Max (80.6%) | MiniMax M2.5 (80.2%) | Kimi K2.6 (est. 79%)
Top Small Models (15–50B params): Nemotron Super 49B | Qwen3-32B | Mistral Small 3 24B
Top Edge Models (0–15B params): Phi-4 Mini (14B) | Gemma 3 9B | Qwen2.5-7B
AI Leaders (market cap): NVIDIA $5.23T | Alphabet $4.63T | Microsoft $3.11T
Robotics Leaders (market cap): Intuitive Surgical ~$120B | Figure AI $39B (private est.) | FANUC ~$25B
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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