TODAY IN AI
Anthropic releases Claude for Excel. Source Anthropic
**1. Qualcomm’s stock soars 15% as it announces new chips to compete with NVIDIA.**The chipmaker will produce the AI200 and the AI250 chips in full-rack systems that allow as many as 72 chips to work together. The timing couldn’t be better for Qualcomm’s ambitions: McKinsey estimates nearly $6.7 trillion will be spent on data centers through 2030, as major buyers like OpenAI are increasingly shopping around for alternatives to Nvidia’s offerings.
2. Anthropic releases Claude for Excel: Currently in beta as a research preview, the tool allows users to work directly with Claude in a sidebar in Microsoft Excel. The tool will read, analyze, modify, and create new Excel workbooks. Anthropic is also rolling out new Skills and connectors made specifically for finance professionals.
3. AI startup powering ChatGPT’s expertise reaches $10B valuation: Mercor, which connects AI labs like OpenAI with domain experts for training their foundational AI models, has raised$350M at a $10B valuation. Felicis Ventures is leading this round, with Benchmark, General Catalyst, and Robinhood Ventures also participating.