Anthropic Eyes $300B+ IPO, Ripple Secures $40B Backing, Kraken Targets $15B Valuation in New Raise

Here’s what stood out this week across our portfolio holdings: an AI leader is preparing for one of the largest public listings in tech history, a major digital-asset company attracted Wall Street capital at one of the sector’s highest private valuations, and a global infrastructure provider is now targeting a $15B valuation as it moves toward a large-scale spinout. Let’s dive in…

THIS WEEK’S BREAKING NEWS

Anthropic signals readiness for a $300B+ IPO

Anthropic has engaged Wilson Sonsini to prepare for what could be one of the largest tech IPOs in history, targeting a potential valuation of $300B–$350B. The company is simultaneously pursuing a major private round, refreshing its finance leadership, and aligning governance with public-company standards, positioning itself to rival OpenAI’s own early IPO groundwork. (1)

MARKET UPDATE

Europe’s infrastructure boom reshapes private capital flows

Europe has secured a record 34% share of global private capital in the first nine months of 2025, with $311B raised, driven largely by surging interest in infrastructure and natural resources. Infrastructure commitments alone reached $57B and are on track to exceed $75B, more than double 2024. Major managers, such as KKR and Blackstone, are expanding deployment in the region as European credit, real estate, and secondaries markets mature. (2)

STABLETON MORNINGSTAR PITCHBOOK UNICORN 20 STRATEGY

The Stableton Morningstar PitchBook Unicorn 20 strategy is the world’s first passive, systematic, and semi-liquid approach to investing in the Top 20 privately held tech companies before they go public.

This strategy offers a straightforward and cost-effective way to gain exposure to leading private technology companies within a single portfolio. With no performance fees and enhanced liquidity, it offers a unique alternative to traditional private market investments.

PORTFOLIO NEWS

Anduril deepens ties with Japan’s defense industry

Anduril has launched a Japan-based unit as it pursues deeper integration with local suppliers and explores large-scale manufacturing aligned with Japan’s defense expansion agenda. Founder Palmer Luckey confirmed discussions around new and existing production facilities, reflecting rising regional defense budgets and demand for autonomous systems. The move complements Japan’s plans to relax export rules, lift defense spending to 2 percent of GDP, and accelerate industrial capacity. (3)

Anthropic expands into developer infrastructure with Bun acquisition

Anthropic has acquired Bun, an all-in-one developer toolkit, to enhance the speed and reliability of its coding agent Claude Code, which has already reached a $1B annualized revenue run rate. The tool is gaining traction among large enterprises such as Netflix, Spotify and Salesforce. The move strengthens Anthropic’s push into developer infrastructure following recent commitments from Microsoft and Nvidia totaling up to $15B. (4)

Claude becomes Snowflake’s engine for enterprise intelligence

Anthropic and Snowflake have entered a $200M multi-year partnership that embeds Claude models directly into Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud for more than 12,600 customers. The collaboration expands joint go-to-market efforts and focuses on deploying enterprise-grade AI agents capable of complex, multi-step reasoning across governed data environments. Early adopters already process trillions of tokens each month and report material productivity gains across engineering, sales, and customer operations. (5)

Dartmouth brings campuswide AI to the Ivy League with Anthropic

Dartmouth has launched a comprehensive partnership with Anthropic and AWS to integrate Claude for Education and Amazon Bedrock across its entire campus, making it the first Ivy League institution to deploy AI at an institutional scale. The initiative includes structured training, faculty leadership groups, curriculum integration and career design support. Dartmouth positions AI fluency as a foundational academic skill while maintaining strict privacy, governance, and academic integrity standards. (6)

Cursor scales AI adoption with strong market productivity gains

Cursor has automated 80% of its internal support tickets and deployed an AI system that lets employees query company-wide information. Despite mixed evidence on AI’s impact on engineering productivity, recent University of Chicago research shows Cursor users at large enterprises merged 39% more PRs, with senior developers driving the highest adoption and value creation. (7)

Applied Intuition accelerates autonomous air defense deployment

Applied Intuition and Sierra Nevada Corporation have formed a partnership to accelerate autonomous air defense and counter-drone capabilities by integrating Applied Intuition’s autonomy stack with SNC’s open-architecture mission systems. Initial work will focus on localized missile defense and anti-drone missions, adding autonomous vehicle movement and coordinated deployment to SNC’s Expeditionary Area Air Defense and MAAWLR platforms. The collaboration follows Applied Intuition’s recent $600M raise and SNC’s continued expansion of its BRAWLR system. (8)

Kraken links crypto and traditional markets with Deutsche Börse

Kraken and Deutsche Börse Group have formed a strategic partnership that connects traditional market infrastructure with digital-asset platforms across trading, custody, derivatives, and tokenization. Phase one integrates Kraken with 360T to deliver bank-grade FX liquidity and improve fiat access. The collaboration deepens institutional distribution, embeds Kraken’s xStocks tokenization standard into Deutsche Börse’s 360X ecosystem, and aligns with Kraken’s broader 2025 strategy, which includes its recent Backed Finance acquisition and confidential U.S. IPO filing near $20B. (9)

Kraken boosts institutional speed with Avelacom partnership

Kraken has partnered with Avelacom to reduce latency and improve execution speeds for institutions trading crypto across multiple liquidity venues. The move strengthens Kraken’s broader institutional strategy, following its recent partnership with Deutsche Börse Group that connected crypto, FX, and derivatives markets through a unified access point. Together, these initiatives aim to provide faster, more reliable infrastructure for active institutional trading. (10)

Kraken targets $15B valuation in new raise

Kraken is raising about $500M at a targeted valuation near $15B. The company is in discussions with investors as Octopus prepares to spin it off. Kraken already supports more than 70 million utility customers globally through licensing agreements with major providers and is projected to reach 100 million accounts by 2027. (11)

Neuralink achieves thought-controlled robotic arm breakthrough

Neuralink has achieved a major company milestone as its first clinical trial participants are now able to control robotic arms using only their thoughts, extending the brain-computer interface beyond digital cursor control. In public demonstrations, users with paralysis successfully manipulated objects and fed themselves through robotic limbs. Neuralink says this capability marks the beginning of a broader roadmap to control additional physical devices and expand real-world functionality. (12)

OpenAI anchors NEXTDC’s new hyperscale AI campus

OpenAI has signed an MoU with NEXTDC to develop a hyperscale AI campus and GPU supercluster in Sydney, marking a significant expansion of its Australia program. The agreement positions OpenAI as the anchor client for NEXTDC’s S7 site, which has a potential capacity of 550 megawatts. The announcement lifted NEXTDC’s shares by up to 10.9 percent, although analysts note longer-term risks tied to power costs and copyright concerns. (13)

OpenAI issues code red to protect ChatGPT lead

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has issued a company-wide “code red,” redirecting resources to strengthen ChatGPT as competitive pressure from Google’s Gemini 3 and Anthropic’s Opus 4.5 intensifies. The $500B company is delaying advertising tools, AI shopping and health agents, and its Pulse product to focus on speed, reliability and personalization. Despite 800 million weekly users, internal data shows users spend more time in Gemini, prompting renewed urgency. (14)

Perplexity AI gains global boost from Ronaldo partnership

Cristiano Ronaldo has taken an undisclosed stake in Perplexity AI and entered a global sponsorship partnership with the company, marking his most prominent investment to date. Perplexity, valued at $20B in its September round, is positioning itself as a fast-growing challenger to Google through enterprise tools and international expansion. The partnership includes a new interactive hub for fans, extending Perplexity’s global reach. (15)

Revolut’s Canary Wharf HQ attracts Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank will take about 250,000 square feet in the YY building in Canary Wharf, a tower prominently branded by Revolut, effectively becoming a major tenant alongside the British fintech. The move underscores the district’s rebound as global firms recommit to office space, following recent expansions by Visa and JPMorgan. Revolut’s headquarters remains a central anchor in Canary Wharf’s revitalization. (16)

Revolut Business unveils Titan, its premium corporate card

Revolut Business has launched the waitlist for Titan, its first ultra-premium corporate card designed to unify travel, lifestyle, and spend management for fast-scaling companies. Titan integrates real-time expense tracking, automated reconciliation, and premium travel benefits while offering up to £4,000 in annual business subscriptions and global mobile data. Built on Visa’s commercial infrastructure, Titan follows Revolut Business, surpassing $1B in annualized revenue and targets UK rollout early next year. (17)

Revolut extends buybacks at adjusted $52.5B valuation

Revolut is offering former employees a share buyback at $966.74 per share, implying a $52.5B valuation—30% below its recent $75B funding round but a 12% premium to last year’s secondary sale. The move follows a series of liquidity programs benefiting staff and early investors as the company strengthens governance during its UK “mobilization phase” ahead of a full banking license. (18)

Ripple lands Wall Street backing at $40B valuation

Ripple’s $500M share sale in November attracted major Wall Street firms, including Citadel Securities and Fortress Investment Group, valuing the company at $40B, the highest for any private digital-asset firm. Investors negotiated significant downside protections, reflecting caution given Ripple’s heavy reliance on XRP, which accounted for roughly 90 percent of net asset value. The deal underscores institutional interest in crypto despite sharp token volatility and recent market selloffs. (19)

SpaceX rejects reports of an $800B valuation

Elon Musk has denied reports that SpaceX is seeking an $800B valuation in a new funding round, stating the media claims are inaccurate. Musk said SpaceX has been cash-flow positive for years and conducts twice-yearly stock buybacks to provide liquidity for employees and investors, rather than pursuing new capital raises. (20)

Stripe acquires Metronome to power usage-based billing

Stripe has agreed to acquire Metronome, a usage-based billing platform, to strengthen Stripe Billing for the AI era. The deal integrates Metronome’s metered-pricing engine with Stripe’s payments and monetization tools, enabling real-time telemetry, hybrid revenue models, and automated finance workflows. Stripe sees usage-based pricing as a major shift comparable to the rise of SaaS, positioning the combined platform to support modern AI-driven business models. (21)

OTHER NEWS

Mistral pushes European AI forward with new models

Mistral has released Mistral Large 3 and a series of smaller open-weight models as it seeks an edge in the open AI ecosystem and strengthens Europe’s position in frontier model development. The company frames openness as core to European AI sovereignty, enabling multilingual and multimodal capabilities and offline deployment across sensitive use cases. The launch comes amid concerns that Europe is falling behind the US and China in advanced AI. (22)

Nvidia’s partnership with Mistral expands open models

Nvidia and Mistral AI have partnered to accelerate development and deployment of the new Mistral 3 family of open models, using Nvidia’s supercomputing and edge platforms to optimize the mixture-of-experts architecture. Mistral Large 3 is positioned for scalable enterprise workloads. The release includes nine small models designed for efficient on-device and edge deployment. (23)

Mistral enters energy sector with Moeve

Moeve has partnered with Mistral AI to develop generative AI solutions for the energy sector, beginning with a pilot digital assistant for Moeve’s industrial centers that will support document understanding and operational workflows. The collaboration positions Mistral AI’s efficient open-weight models at the core of Moeve’s productivity and sustainability initiatives, while advancing Europe’s broader push for technological sovereignty and industrial re-acceleration. (24)

Google and Replit push vibe coding enterprise-wide

Google and Replit are expanding their partnership to bring “vibe coding,” an AI-first software development approach, to more enterprises. The collaboration integrates Replit’s development tools with Google Cloud and Google’s AI models, supporting the company’s rapid growth as it targets $1B in revenue by 2026. Google CEO Sundar Pichai says the model makes software creation accessible to non-technical teams, lowering barriers to product development. (25)

ByteDance adjusts Doubao as app restrictions grow

ByteDance is adjusting the AI capabilities of its Doubao smartphone assistant after several major Chinese apps restricted its automated functions, prompting the company to call for clearer rules that balance innovation with user rights. The changes limit operations in financial apps, gaming, and reward-boosting scenarios. The Nubia M153 prototype showcased Doubao’s system-level integration, highlighting rapid competition in AI-powered smartphones and the need for shared protocols between AI agents and app ecosystems. (26)

Shield AI steps into satellite autonomy with Sedaro

Shield AI is extending its autonomy software into orbit through a new partnership with Sedaro, aiming to adapt its Hivemind AI pilot for satellites. Using Sedaro’s cloud-based simulation environment, the companies will model advanced on-orbit behaviors, reducing reliance on ground control. The move positions Shield AI to enter the growing market for space-based autonomy at a time when defense customers are seeking more resilient and AI-enabled satellite constellations. (27)

CHART OF THE WEEK

Periods of wider discounts to NAV have historically aligned with stronger relative performance for secondaries. From 2019 to 2021, pricing shifted from the low-90s to the mid-80s as a percentage of NAV, and secondaries posted materially higher IRRs than traditional private equity. Acquiring portfolios at a discount provides immediate valuation support and strengthens the return profile as underlying assets normalize, which is why these vintages show a clear advantage.

For allocators, this pattern highlights why secondaries operate as a strategic exposure rather than a timing exercise. Systematic access to discounted late-stage positions has been a durable driver of relative performance across cycles. The Stableton Morningstar PitchBook Unicorn 20 strategy provides a systematic approach to leading private tech companies, pairing scale and liquidity to help institutional investors, banks, wealth managers, and family offices benefit from this unprecedented buildup of secondary market capital.

THE UNTOLD UNICORN STORY

Anthropic: Building AI to serve humanity’s long-term well-being

Co-Founder and CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei. Source: CFR (28)

Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, began his career as a physics major before transitioning to the world of artificial intelligence. He holds a PhD in biophysics from Princeton University, where he studied the electrophysiology of neural circuits, and also served as a postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Under Amodei’s leadership, Anthropic has become a leader in AI safety, focusing on developing powerful AI systems with robust safety measures. The company has set itself apart by prioritizing responsible AI scaling through its Responsible Scaling Policy, ensuring that as AI technology advances, safety is never compromised. Anthropic's commitment to creating AI that benefits humanity while minimizing risks is reshaping the AI landscape. (29)

Fun Fact: Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant, can do more than generate text. In recent testing, Claude helped non-experts write code for a robot dog so it could walk around and even find a beach ball. The human team trying the same task without AI support could not get the robot to move at all. (30)

Did you know? Anthropic is one of the 20 companies in our Stableton Morningstar PitchBook Unicorn 20 strategy, a systematic, index-like approach that aims to outperform public benchmarks with low-cost fees, and without a performance fee. Click below for more information.

SOURCES

1 - Financial Times, 2 - Financial Times, 3 - Bloomberg, 4 - Reuters, 5 - Anthropic, 6 - Forbes, 7 - Fortune, 8 - The Defense Post, 9 - The Block, 10 - Finance Magnates, 11 - Bloomberg, 12 - Euro News, 13 - Reuters, 14 - Financial Times, 15 - Bloomberg, 16 - Reuters, 17 - Fintech Global, 18 - Financial Times, 19 - Bloomberg, 20 - Reuters, 21 - PYMNTS, 22 - Financial Times, 23 - AI Business, 24 - Moeve Global, 25 - Business Insider, 26 - China Daily, 27 - Space News, 28 - CFR, 29 - Time, 30 - WIRED