Ramp’s $32B Leap, Anthropic Plans $50B Buildout, Anysphere Expands Into Next-Gen Coding

Here’s what stood out this week across our portfolio holdings: one of the fastest-growing finance platforms reaches a new milestone, an AI leader commits to a massive U.S. buildout that shows how quickly the sector is scaling, and a developer-focused company pushes deeper into next-generation coding with fresh billion-dollar backing. Let’s dive in…

THIS WEEK’S BREAKING NEWS

Ramp doubles revenue, climbs to $32B valuation with AI automation

Ramp reached a $32B valuation after a $300M primary raise and employee tender offer, marking a rapid rise from $22.5B in July and $16B just 45 days earlier. The company surpassed $1B in annualized revenue, doubling year-over-year, driven by new product lines across bill pay, procurement, treasury and travel. Ramp now serves 50,000 customers and is investing heavily in autonomous AI agents to automate corporate finance workflows. (1)

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PORTFOLIO NEWS

Anduril taps Archer for next-gen autonomous powertrain

Anduril and EDGE have selected Archer Aviation’s proprietary electric powertrain for the Omen autonomous aircraft, marking Archer’s first external commercial deployment and opening a new revenue stream. The UAE has already committed to 50 units, underscoring rising defense demand for electric propulsion platforms. With eVTOL certification timelines slowing, Archer’s technology now enters Anduril’s expanding autonomous systems portfolio. (2)

Anduril moves to surface dominance with modular ASVs

Anduril and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries are developing a new class of dual-use Autonomous Surface Vessels designed for distributed maritime operations under the U.S. Navy’s MASC program. The partnership combines Hyundai’s shipbuilding scale with Anduril’s autonomy, modular mission systems, and software-defined architecture to deliver vessels that can be built quickly, upgraded continuously, and produced in volume. U.S. production will follow prototype fabrication in Korea. (3)

Anthropic uncovers first AI-driven cyberespionage campaign

Anthropic disclosed that Chinese state-sponsored hackers used its Claude chatbot to conduct what it believes is the first large-scale cyberespionage campaign executed primarily by AI. The attackers targeted about 30 companies and agencies, automating credential harvesting and data theft with thousands of AI-generated requests per second. Detected in mid-September, the campaign succeeded in only a small number of cases but demonstrates how AI agents can enable high-speed, low-cost intrusions. (4)

Anthropic commits $50B to expand US data power

Anthropic announced a $50B investment to build new AI data centers in Texas and New York, partnering with Fluidstack to expand computing capacity for Claude amid accelerating enterprise demand. The project will add 3,200 jobs and reflects intensifying competition for U.S. data-center power, with cloud providers leasing 7.4 gigawatts last quarter alone. The move underscores rising capital intensity across AI infrastructure as investors question sustainability and valuation discipline. (5)

Anthropic launches continent-scale AI education rollout

Anthropic is partnering with the Rwandan Government and ALX to deploy Chidi, an AI learning companion built on Claude, to hundreds of thousands of learners across Africa, marking one of the continent’s largest AI-in-education rollouts. Rwanda will integrate the tool into national teacher training and civil-service programs, while ALX will offer access to 200,000+ students. Early usage data shows strong engagement and adoption, underscoring demand for scalable AI-driven upskilling. (6)

Cursor triples valuation with $2.3B raise

Cursor raised $2.3B at a $29.3B valuation, nearly tripling its June mark, as demand accelerates for AI coding tools. The company reports over $1B in annualized revenue and has grown to more than 300 employees since launching in 2023. Backed by Accel, Thrive, a16z, DST, Coatue, Nvidia, and Google, Cursor joins a small group of AI firms valued above ($10B). Competitive pressure remains intense as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cognition expand their own coding products. (7)

Databricks eyes $130B raise; 30% valuation jump in talks

Databricks is in discussions to raise new capital at a valuation above $130B, indicating continued investor appetite for AI infrastructure despite broader concerns about overheating in the sector. The prospective raise would lift Databricks’ valuation by roughly 30% from its September round, with funds expected to support hiring and acquisitions. As of current, no term sheet has been signed. (8)

Kraken challenges UK’s strict crypto-promotion regime

Kraken criticized the UK’s crypto-promotion rules, arguing that mandatory warnings, multi-step risk checks, and added “positive frictions” slow transactions and limit product availability for British users. The FCA maintains the rules are working as intended by ensuring informed decision-making. Sethi said UK clients cannot access roughly three-quarters of the products available in the US and warned against tokenizing private company shares, calling the model structurally flawed. (9)

Kraken expands institutional reach with CIG partnership

Kraken has formed a strategic partnership with Crypto Insights Group to expand institutional access to digital-asset hedge funds. CIG’s analytics platform connects allocators with high-performing managers, while Kraken provides execution, custody, and lending services built to traditional-finance standards. Kraken says the collaboration meets rising allocator expectations for transparency and operational rigor as institutions set mandates for 2026 and accelerate digital-asset engagement. (10)

OpenAI tests new ChatGPT group collaboration features

OpenAI is piloting “Group Chats” in ChatGPT, a collaboration feature that allows multiple users and the model to work together in a single conversation. The tool is designed to streamline alignment, decision-tracking and project transparency across teams, positioning ChatGPT as a workflow platform rather than an individual productivity tool. The pilot is limited to Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan ahead of a broader rollout. (11)

OpenAI launches GPT-5.1 with adaptive reasoning and enterprise automation

OpenAI released GPT-5.1 to developers, introducing adaptive reasoning that speeds simple workloads while maintaining high performance on complex tasks. Early testers report 2–3x faster runtime and materially lower token usage versus GPT-5. The update adds a “no reasoning” mode for latency-sensitive workflows, extended 24-hour prompt caching, and two new tools, apply_patch and shell, to support more reliable agentic and coding automation. Pricing remains aligned with GPT-5. (12)

Perplexity secures major distribution through Snap deal

Snap is integrating Perplexity AI’s search engine into Snapchat under a partnership that will see Perplexity pay Snap $400M in cash and equity over one year, with revenue recognized beginning in 2026. The deal gives Perplexity a major distribution channel among younger users, while Snap gains an AI search layer without building it in-house. Snap reported $1.51B in revenue, up 10% year-over-year, and DAUs reached 477 million. (13)

Revolut Pay lands major partnership with Booking.com

Revolut expanded its travel footprint through a new global payments partnership with Booking.com, enabling over 65 million Revolut users to pay via Revolut Pay at checkout. The integration brings one-click payments to Booking.com’s platform, which already overlaps with roughly 9 million Revolut customers. Revolut Pay now counts nearly 2 million monthly active users, underscoring its growing relevance in high-frequency travel transactions. (14)

Ripple and Mastercard test stablecoin settlement rails

Mastercard and Ripple are exploring the use of Ripple’s XRPL blockchain to settle fiat transactions, aiming to bring regulated stablecoin settlement into traditional payment flows. The collaboration focuses on using Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin to demonstrate faster, more efficient settlement within Mastercard’s existing network. The initiative reflects growing institutional interest in blockchain-based rails as stablecoins surpass $45T in annual transaction volume. (15)

Rippling survey highlights mounting costs of software sprawl

Rippling’s new State of Sprawl Report shows that software fragmentation has become a major operational drain across HR, IT, and Finance teams. Among 750 surveyed managers, 85% rely on more than three tools within their department, and most require over two full-time employees just to manage integrations and troubleshooting. Teams spend at least a quarter of their time on administrative work, while unused licenses remain widespread. Rippling positions unified platforms as a structural remedy. (16)

Stripe and Sui launch USDsui stablecoin on-chain

Stripe and Sui are launching a native stablecoin, USDsui, on the Sui network via the Open Issuance platform, backed by Stripe’s Bridge unit and the Sui Foundation. U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent has suggested stablecoins could reach a $3T market by 2030, and the partners aim to use USDsui to deepen Sui’s liquidity and institutional integrations around on-chain economic activity. (17)

Musk denies report of xAI’s $15B fundraise

Elon Musk publicly denied a CNBC report claiming xAI is raising $15B in a Series E round, following his earlier rejection of a separate report alleging a $10B raise that valued the company at $200B. xAI responded to Reuters with an automated “Legacy Media Lies” message, offering no further clarification. The conflicting signals leave xAI’s capital-raising activity unconfirmed. (18)

OTHER NEWS

Apptronik targets $5B valuation in major raise

Apptronik is in advanced talks to raise at least $400M at a $5B pre-money valuation, led by B Capital, reflecting surging investor interest in humanoid robotics. The company is scaling its Apollo robot amid intensifying competition from Tesla’s Optimus. Apptronik has deep industrial partnerships, including Google, Nvidia, NASA, Mercedes-Benz and GXO, and previously raised $350M in February to accelerate deployment across logistics and manufacturing environments.(19)

Cerebras launches sovereign AI push with Guyana

Cerebras Systems is partnering with the government of Guyana to build the country’s first 100-megawatt data center, scheduled to break ground in late 2025 and open in early 2027, with revenue shared between both parties. The company also launched “Cerebras for Nations,” an initiative to help governments build sovereign supercomputers and AI models. Cerebras recently raised $1.1B at an $8.1B valuation and is expanding discussions with India, Europe, the Gulf and Asia. (20)

Groq expands to Asia Pacific with Sydney deployment

Groq has deployed 4.5MW of AI infrastructure in an Equinix data center in Sydney, marking its first Asia-Pacific installation and extending access to GroqCloud with lower latency for a user base already half located in the region. The move is part of Groq’s rapid global expansion across Equinix and other operators, following recent deployments in Finland, North America and Saudi Arabia, and a $1.5B investment secured earlier this year to scale inference infrastructure. (21)

Gopuff lands $250M as valuation resets to $8.5B

Gopuff secured a $250M investment led by Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries and Valor Equity Partners, valuing the company at $8.5B, down sharply from its $15B peak in 2021. The funding comes after layoffs, a shift toward profitability, and a pivot into higher-margin categories and branded partnerships. With consolidation reshaping the rapid-delivery sector, investors view Gopuff as one of the few durable operators positioned to re-expand into select markets. (22)

ByteDance launches ultra-low-cost AI coding agent

ByteDance’s Volcano Engine launched Doubao-Seed-Code, an AI coding agent priced at US$1.30 for the first month, about 63% below China’s industry average, intensifying the country’s AI coding price war. The model delivers state-of-the-art performance on SWE-Bench Verified and supports tools like Cursor and Cline. The launch follows Anthropic’s recent restrictions on Chinese-owned entities, underscoring widening global AI fragmentation as Chinese developers accelerate domestic alternatives. (23)

CHART OF THE WEEK

Secondary platforms are now home to some of the world’s most valuable and dynamic private companies. From long-established players like SpaceX and Stripe to fast-rising stars such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Figure AI, the mix reflects both maturity and rapid innovation in late-stage markets.

This diversity shows how capital is flowing toward companies shaping the future of technology, defense, and AI at unprecedented speed and scale. The Stableton Morningstar PitchBook Unicorn 20 targets these leaders directly, giving investors systematic access to the firms where liquidity, growth, and valuation upside are converging.

THE UNTOLD UNICORN STORY

Ramp: Automating the financial engine of modern business

Ramp Co-founders Karim Atiyeh, Eric Glyman, and Gene Lee. Source: TechCrunch (24)

Founded in 2019 by Eric Glyman, Karim Atiyeh, and Gene Lee, Ramp set out to fix a universal problem in the financial world: commerce teams overloaded with manual expense reports and fragmented tools. Their vision was to build an automated platform that makes company finances faster, smarter, and more transparent. Ramp delivers that through a single system combining corporate cards, bill payments, expense management, and accounting automation.

Today, Ramp serves 30,000+ companies, processing over $55B in payments each year. Its AI features analyze spending, detect anomalies, and automate approvals, turning finance into a systematic function rather than a manual one. Backed by investors including Microsoft, Thrive Capital, and General Catalyst, Ramp reached a $22.5B valuation in 2025, cementing its position among the fastest-growing fintech leaders. (25)

Fun Fact: Ramp's first major investor breakthrough came from the most unlikely place—a Fortnite battlefield. Co-founder Karim Atiyeh spent long hours playing the popular battle royale game to unwind, and one of his online competitors turned out to be Delian Asparouhov, who worked with legendary PayPal executive Keith Rabois at Founders Fund. That chance gaming session led to one of Ramp's most important early investments. (26)

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SOURCES

1 - The Wall Street Journal, 2 - Reuters, 3 - Anduril, 4 - CBS News, 5 - ABC News, 6 - Anthropic, 7 - CNBC, 8 - Bloomberg, 9 - Financial Times, 10 - Businesswire, 11 - Forbes, 12 - OpenAI, 13 - MSN, 14 - PYMNTS, 15 - Fintech Magazine, 16 - Businesswire, 17 - CoinDesk, 18 - Reuters, 19 - The Information, 20 - Bloomberg, 21 - Data Center Dynamics, 22 - Financial Times, 23 - South China Morning Post, 24 - TechCrunch, 25 - Reuters, 26 - Fortune