Last week was about scale and momentum: valuations, new coding tools from the biggest names in tech, and usage numbers that show how fast AI is being adopted. The quick hits:
Anthropic closed a round near a $965 billion valuation and filed to go public
Anthropic, the maker of Claude, announced a financing round valuing it close to a trillion dollars and confidentially filed for an IPO. A year ago that number would have looked absurd; today it reflects how much of the AI market Claude has captured, much of it through its coding tools.
Microsoft and Google jumped into AI coding models
Both Microsoft and Google moved to launch coding-focused AI to compete with Anthropic and OpenAI, with Google pricing an AI-for-developers product at $100 per month. AI-assisted software development has become the most competitive corner of the market, which is good news for anyone who builds custom software: the tools keep getting better and cheaper.
Microsoft's model catalog crossed 11,000 models
Microsoft's Foundry catalog now lists more than 11,000 models, frontier systems from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google alongside open-source and small specialized models. The takeaway for businesses: there is no single "best" AI. The advantage goes to teams who can pick the right model for each task instead of betting everything on one.
Claude's usage grew more than 300% in a quarter
Claude's web visits jumped from about 203 million in January to 824 million in April 2026, roughly 306% growth in a single quarter. Adoption moving that fast is why "we'll get to AI eventually" is quietly becoming a competitive risk.
