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Jon Keegan

Anthropic releases Claude Opus 4.5 as AI war heats up

The past few weeks have seen new, impressive AI models debut from OpenAI and Google. Today it’s Anthropic’s turn to flex, as it releases Claude Opus 4.5, the latest iteration of its flagship AI model.

Anthropic’s Claude model is widely considered to be among the best at coding, and this model helps the company stay at the head of the pack.

Benchmarks released by Anthropic show Opus 4.5 besting both GPT-5.1 and Gemini 3 with an all-time high score of 80% and the widely used SWE-bench coding benchmark. It also posted high scores for benchmarks measuring computer use and the notoriously challenging ARC-AGI-2 visual problem-solving test, though apparently it can’t run a vending machine as profitably as Google’s Gemini 3 can.

AI coding is one of the few bright spots as companies seek profitable enterprise applications for AI that actually improve productivity. Anthropic’s success with enterprise customers has helped push its valuation to nearly $350 billion.

Benchmarks released by Anthropic show Opus 4.5 besting both GPT-5.1 and Gemini 3 with an all-time high score of 80% and the widely used SWE-bench coding benchmark. It also posted high scores for benchmarks measuring computer use and the notoriously challenging ARC-AGI-2 visual problem-solving test, though apparently it can’t run a vending machine as profitably as Google’s Gemini 3 can.

AI coding is one of the few bright spots as companies seek profitable enterprise applications for AI that actually improve productivity. Anthropic’s success with enterprise customers has helped push its valuation to nearly $350 billion.

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Report: Anthropic cuts off xAI’s access to its models for coding

Competition between the top AI companies is fierce. Top employees are being poached, and companies are training their AI on competitors’ models to stay ahead of the pack.

Anthropic is taking steps to make sure it’s not helping the competition in any way. According to tech reporter Kylie Robison, this week Anthropic cut access to xAI developers who were using its Claude models for coding via the popular Cursor AI coding tool.

Robison reports that xAI cofounder Tony Wu told his team in an email:
“This is a both bad and good news. We will get a hit on productivity, but it rly pushes us to develop our own coding product / models.”

Robison reports that xAI cofounder Tony Wu told his team in an email:
“This is a both bad and good news. We will get a hit on productivity, but it rly pushes us to develop our own coding product / models.”

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xAI’s revenue is growing, but so are its staggering losses

Good news: xAI’s revenue nearly doubled to $107 million in the third quarter compared to the second.

Bad news: Its net losses grew to $1.46 billion in Q3, up from $1 billion in the first quarter, and more than 13x revenue, Bloomberg reports.

The company, which is currently worth north of $230 billion, is burning through staggering amounts of cash — nearly a billion dollars a month — in service of building data centers and developing what it calls “self-sufficient” AI that can one day power robots like Tesla’s Optimus. Meanwhile, its revenue still looks more like that of a midsize startup than a tech giant.

Despite receiving more yes than no votes, Tesla’s board didn’t approve a shareholder proposal to invest in xAI, leaving a more formal relationship between the companies unresolved, even as xAI continues to burn cash at a pace that will require steady access to outside capital.

Of course, Elon Musk’s AI company is already deeply financially intertwined with his EV company. In 2024, xAI spent nearly $200 million, largely on Tesla Megapack batteries — a figure that appears to have grown significantly in 2025.

The company, which is currently worth north of $230 billion, is burning through staggering amounts of cash — nearly a billion dollars a month — in service of building data centers and developing what it calls “self-sufficient” AI that can one day power robots like Tesla’s Optimus. Meanwhile, its revenue still looks more like that of a midsize startup than a tech giant.

Despite receiving more yes than no votes, Tesla’s board didn’t approve a shareholder proposal to invest in xAI, leaving a more formal relationship between the companies unresolved, even as xAI continues to burn cash at a pace that will require steady access to outside capital.

Of course, Elon Musk’s AI company is already deeply financially intertwined with his EV company. In 2024, xAI spent nearly $200 million, largely on Tesla Megapack batteries — a figure that appears to have grown significantly in 2025.

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Apple’s hardware chief is the front-runner to be the next CEO

The New York Times is the latest news organization to cite Apple sources who think the company’s hardware chief, John Ternus, will be the one to fill CEO Tim Cook’s shoes. Citing people close to Apple, the publication reports that Cook is “tired and would like to reduce his workload” and that 50-year-old Ternus is the most likely to take his place, as the company accelerates its succession planning.

The Times is in good company. Both the Financial Times and Bloomberg have previously said Ternus is the top pick to succeed Cook at the helm of the tech giant, and Ternus is currently enjoying the top spot on prediction markets. His market-implied odds of being the next CEO are currently above 60% on both Polymarket and Kalshi event contracts.

The Times is in good company. Both the Financial Times and Bloomberg have previously said Ternus is the top pick to succeed Cook at the helm of the tech giant, and Ternus is currently enjoying the top spot on prediction markets. His market-implied odds of being the next CEO are currently above 60% on both Polymarket and Kalshi event contracts.

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