According to BlockBeats, on August 18th, Anthropic's annualized revenue run rate as of the end of July exceeded $65 billion, a nearly 40% increase from $47 billion in May, and more than seven times the projected $9 billion by the end of 2025. The company's preliminary second-quarter revenue exceeded $11.5 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of at least 14 times.

Reuters previously reported that Anthropic has set a revenue target of $190 billion to $200 billion for 2028, and discussions about its potential IPO valuation have exceeded $2 trillion, with some investors even believing that $3 trillion is not out of reach. If Anthropic achieves $200 billion in revenue in 2028 and obtains a price-to-sales ratio of 50, its market capitalization would theoretically reach $10 trillion.

Behind this expectation is the formation of a "model-computing power-capital" cycle in the AI industry. Giants such as Nvidia and Amazon continue to provide computing power to cutting-edge AI labs through investment, financing, and data center construction, while model companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI have become the core demanders in the entire AI infrastructure investment chain.

It's worth noting that Anthropic's growth rate is catching up with and even surpassing OpenAI's. By the end of 2025, OpenAI's annualized revenue is estimated at around $20 billion, more than double that of Anthropic; as of the end of July, Anthropic's annualized revenue had reached $65 billion, while OpenAI's latest annualized revenue was approximately $40 billion.

Although a market capitalization of $10 trillion is still an extreme assumption and faces risks such as competition, computing costs, and valuation declines, Anthropic is becoming an important candidate for the market to bet on the next trillion-dollar or even ten-trillion-dollar company as AI extends from infrastructure to the "intelligent productivity" layer.

According to BlockBeats, on August 18, due to the continued surge in memory chip prices, Apple plans to complete the price adjustment of the iPhone 17 series in all regions of the world by the end of August. The maximum increase per unit may not exceed 1,000 yuan. The specific plan may refer to the previous price increase in the Japanese market.

Apple raised prices for all iPhones in Japan on July 17, with increases ranging from approximately 8% to 11.3%. The iPhone Air saw the largest increase at 11.3%, while the iPhone 17 Pro Max rose by 10.3%, resulting in an increase of 20,000 yen per unit. Based on the exchange rate at the time, this increased the cost of purchasing an iPhone in Japan by approximately 540 to 835 yuan.

Apple has not yet announced a price increase for the iPhone 17 in the Chinese market, but it did raise prices for Macs, iPads, and other products in June, with some models seeing increases of 15% to 20%. Apple CEO Tim Cook previously stated that memory chip prices continue to rise, and the company is evaluating solutions, describing the current memory price environment as a "once-in-a-century flood," saying that prices have risen exponentially.

According to BlockBeats, on August 18, Chainalysis Government Solutions, the government business unit of blockchain analytics company Chainalysis, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for awarding a contract worth approximately $94.6 million directly to competitor TRM Labs, questioning the procurement decision as "unreasonable and arbitrary."

On July 27, Chainalysis filed a protest with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims concerning a one-year contract from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027, to provide blockchain forensics software and support services to the Homeland Security Task Force. TRM Labs intervened in the case on July 28, defending the contract alongside the U.S. government.

ICE conducted market research for only about six days, receiving responses from eight companies, and determined that only TRM Labs possessed the required capabilities. Chainalysis's core claims remain sealed due to trade secrets. The court has scheduled oral arguments for September 2nd and has required the government to make a decision no later than September 10th.

According to BlockBeats' August Global Fund Manager Survey, 32% of investors believe an artificial intelligence bubble is the biggest tail risk event. Tail risk refers to the probability of extreme and rare events occurring that could have a significant impact on financial markets. The survey also showed that 27% of respondents considered a disorderly rise in bond yields to be the second largest tail risk event.

Meanwhile, investor confidence in US stocks outperforming other regional markets has further strengthened. A survey shows that 27% of surveyed fund managers have allocated more US equities than their global benchmark weighting, up 3 percentage points from July and reaching the highest level since December 2024.

So far this year, US stocks have outperformed most overseas markets, with the S&P 500 rising 13% and the Stoxx Europe 600 rising 10%. However, Japanese and South Korean stocks have outperformed US stocks during the same period.