A federal judge used the term “Orwellian” to block the Pentagon’s labeling of Anthropic as a supply chain risk. Huawei’s AI chips secured their first orders from ByteDance and Alibaba, while SMIC’s chip supplies to Iran were exposed.
1｜Judge Halts Pentagon’s Retaliation Against Anthropic, New Model Leak and IPO Plans Revealed Same Day
California federal judge Rita Lin ruled on Thursday to suspend the Pentagon’s decision to label Anthropic as a “supply chain risk.” The ruling stated that the Pentagon’s justification for the label was Anthropic “expressing hostility through the media.” Judge Lin characterized this logic as “Orwellian,” labeling a U.S. company as an adversary based on dissent.
The conflict began when Anthropic refused to allow Claude to be used for autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance. The Pentagon then invoked military authority typically reserved for foreign adversaries, ordering all federal agencies to cease using Claude. The court’s stance was straightforward: an AI company facing political retaliation for saying “no” is legally untenable.
On the same day, Fortune discovered that a misconfigured Anthropic CMS exposed a new model codenamed Mythos, which Anthropic confirmed as a “step-function leap in capability.” Bloomberg reported that Anthropic is discussing an IPO as early as October, with a valuation of $380 billion. While the court blocked political retaliation, the market simultaneously saw signals of technological advancement and an impending public offering.
(Sources: Fortune / Bloomberg / The Information / The Verge / CNBC / U.S. Federal Court)
2｜Huawei Ascend 950PR Secures Orders from ByteDance and Alibaba, SMIC’s Chip Supplies to Iranian Military Exposed
Reuters exclusively reported on Thursday that Huawei’s new-generation AI chip, Ascend 950PR, performed well in customer testing, with ByteDance and Alibaba planning to place orders. Its computing power reaches 1.56 petaflops (FP4), twice that of Nvidia’s China-specific H20 variant. Huawei plans to ship approximately 750,000 units this year, with mass production starting by the end of April.
In another exclusive report the same day, Reuters stated that U.S. officials allege SMIC began providing chip manufacturing equipment and technical training to the Iranian military about a year ago. These two threads intersect with the chip smuggling case reported earlier, indicating cracks in the U.S. export control system at both ends: on one end, Chinese alternative chips are reaching practical thresholds, and on the other, a technical assistance network is forming among sanctioned targets.
NeurIPS 2026 has for the first time linked paper submissions to U.S. sanctions, prompting the China Computer Federation to call for a boycott, with senior researchers from Alibaba and Tencent publicly resigning from conference positions. Decoupling is permeating the most fundamental layers of technical exchange.
(Sources: Reuters / CNBC / SCMP / China Computer Federation)
3｜Pentagon Considers Deploying 10,000 Additional Troops to Middle East, Vance Appointed as Chief Negotiator for Iran Talks
Axios reported that the White House and Pentagon are considering deploying at least 10,000 additional ground combat troops to the Middle East, joining the already deployed 5,000 Marines and 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers. The likely deployment location is within striking range of Iran and Kharg Island, which handles 90% of Iran’s oil exports and was called Iran’s “crown jewel” by Trump.
Troop increases and negotiation windows are advancing simultaneously. On Thursday, Trump announced a 10-day extension of the deadline for striking Iranian energy facilities to April 6. Tehran sent signals of preference, unwilling to negotiate with Vitkov and Kushner but more open to talks with Vance. Trump officially confirmed Vance as the chief negotiator during Thursday’s cabinet meeting.
The troop increase and deadline extension may seem contradictory but follow consistent logic. The deployment of 10,000 troops prepares militarily for seizing the island, while the negotiation window offers Iran a final opportunity for concessions. Vance’s appointment as negotiator itself signals a concession, as he is the most skeptical cabinet member regarding this war. (Continued from earlier report)
(Sources: Axios / Stars and Stripes / NPR / Pentagon)
4｜OpenAI’s Ad Pilot Hits $100 Million Annualized Revenue in Six Weeks, but Enterprise Customers Are Accelerating Departure
OpenAI’s ChatGPT ad pilot in the U.S. reached $100 million in annualized revenue just six weeks after launch. Over 600 advertisers have joined, and approximately 85% of free users can see ads, but the actual daily active user reach rate is less than 20%. OpenAI is testing expansion into Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
While the consumer side is accelerating monetization, the enterprise trend is starkly different. Enterprise customers are three times more likely to choose Anthropic over OpenAI for their first AI purchase, with OpenAI’s enterprise market share dropping from 50% to 27%. Altman issued an internal “Code Red” alert late last year, planning to expand headcount to 8,000 by year-end, cutting side projects to focus on coding and enterprise products.
The $100 million ad revenue milestone proves that monetizing free user traffic is viable. However, enterprise customers prioritize security, control, and customization—areas where Anthropic, today’s other key player, excels. The divergence between these two AI business models became exceptionally clear in a single day.
(Sources: Reuters / The Information / CNBC)
Also Worth Knowing ↓
Meta increases its Texas AI data center investment to $10 billion. On the day Nasdaq entered correction territory, Meta ramped up infrastructure spending, with its annual AI capital expenditure plan exceeding $70 billion. (Source: Reuters)
Dow Chemical CEO warns that petrochemical shortages due to the Iran war may persist throughout the year. Approximately 50% of global polyethylene supply is constrained or offline, with Asian naphtha cracking margins soaring from $108/ton pre-conflict to over $400. Dow estimates it may take 275 days to resolve bottlenecks. (Source: Fortune / Dow Chemical)
Moonshot AI seeks Hong Kong IPO amid tightening regulations. This would be the first IPO case among Chinese AI large model startups. Anthropic’s IPO news emerged the same day, with U.S. and Chinese AI unicorns simultaneously targeting public markets. (Source: WSJ)
Tether hires KPMG to audit USDT reserves and brings in PwC for consulting, paving the way for U.S. market expansion. Stablecoin legislation is accelerating the compliance countdown. (Source: CoinDesk)
Bitcoin falls to a two-week low below $68,000, with $300 million in long positions liquidated. Bitcoin ETFs saw a single-day net outflow of $171 million, the largest in three weeks. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield approaches a one-year high of 4.5%. (Source: CoinDesk / Bloomberg)
Tencent Cloud unveils its first Agent product landscape, upgrading its MaaS platform to TokenHub. It covers five dimensions: infrastructure, model ecosystem, application scenarios, and security, opening up WeChat and enterprise WeChat skill ecosystems. (Source: 36Kr)
