ai-funding

In one week in June 2026, a16z published a manifesto declaring small businesses 'the next frontier for AI' and led three rounds for companies promising to run the business itself. The pitch is horizontal. Every winner is vertical.

On June 1, 2026, Anthropic filed confidentially to go public at a $965B valuation while OpenAI's nonprofit Foundation published its case for spending $25B on 'AI resilience.' Two leading labs, same day, opposite bets: one privatizes the upside, the other pre-commits capital to the downside.