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The week in Startups and VC
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Anthropic paired explosive growth with a $23.3 billion loss and nearly $895 billion in spending commitments, then faced investor resistance to its proposed $1.5 trillion valuation. Continued private backing offered support, but the offering now carries a broader test of whether public markets will fund frontier AI before profitability is visible.
OpenAI moved toward an additional $11 billion raise at a $1.25 trillion valuation, sharply above its March financing. The valuation resurfaced later in the week, underscoring how quickly private-market expectations for leading AI companies continue to expand.
Agentic payments advanced from a startup financing theme toward incumbent-backed infrastructure. Pliant raised $80 million to open B2B payments to AI agents, while Firmly raised $15 million with JPMorgan Payments and Mastercard participating.
Day’s Recap