TODAY IN AI
See ElevenLabs’ new sound effects model in action. Source: ElevenLabs
1. Anthropic closes the gap to OpenAI, rockets to $183B valuation: The Claude maker announced a giant $13B funding round co-led by Iconiq, Fidelity, and Lightspeed, with backers including Blackrock affiliates and Qatar Investment Authority. Claude Code, its developer assistant launched in May, already generates $500M in run-rate revenue. Anthropic’s latest valuation of $183B is a 3x increase from its last fundraising round in March.
2. The battle for Cursor’s code data heats up: The Information reports that OpenAI and xAI have shown interest in AI coding assistant Cursor’s coding data. The dataset comprises millions of real-world coding sessions that AI companies can leverage to improve the coding capabilities of their models.
3. OpenAI makes one of its largest acquisitions to date: The ChatGPT maker is paying $1.1B for product-testing startup Statsig in an all-stock deal. As part of the move, Statsig CEO Vijaye Raji will join OpenAI as CTO of Applications, while the rest of the team will continue operating independently from Seattle.
4. ElevenLabs levels up sound effects: The startup has rolled out an updated version of its sound effects model, available on its app and API. The update allows users to whip out seamless looping sound effects from a single looping sample. You can see it in action here.