It’s my first day at The Wall Street Journal covering startups, VC, AI and more. Confidential tips welcome: kate.clark@wsj.com | Signal: 415-409-9095.

The Nvidia CEO has elevated his children to prominence. His board is investigating reports that he was an espionage target. on.wsj.com/4iN0ozv

Read: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's letter to staff about affair axios.com/2026/11/08/nvi…

Sources: major investors are increasingly skeptical Anthropic's IPO can achieve a $1.5T valuation after a market selloff; one says it could be closer to $1T (Wall Street Journal)

(Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

New: Anthropic’s run rate topped $80 billion at the end of October. wsj.com/finance/major-…

Every AI app founder gets the same question. What stops the big labs from crushing you?

I got it again on the @WSJ Tech main stage this week. Here’s my answer:

We compete with our suppliers, and that’s risky. The very smart people at OpenAI, Anthropic or Google could wake up build what we build (Dots, Duet, etc.).

So I don’t plan around what the labs might do. I plan around what our customers want and need.

Three things guide us at Town:
- Use the best model for each job. Town sends each task to whichever lab does it best right now. A lab can’t make that call against its own model.
- Stay on the customer’s side. We don’t compete with the people who use Town. We don’t train on their data.
- Build for the 90%. Most people at work aren’t tinkerers. They won’t spend a weekend setting up an agent. They need an assistant that’s useful on day one. That’s Town.

The labs will keep shipping, and so will we. We’ll keep building for our customers. That’s the plan!

Thanks to @WSJ and @Kate Clark for having me. And to @tankots for a great dynamic and some super sharp insights!

👀 The head of Amazon MGM studios said at WSJ's Tech event today that it walked from Luca Guadagnino's biopic of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, "Artificial," because it "didn't match the ethos of what we thought we were making."

He also said Jeff Bezos was not involved in the decision

I spoke to @sequoia's @gradypb this morning at WSJ's Tech Live conference in Napa about some big changes at the firm, the midterms and the AI bubble.

The firm is slimming down to “play offense” in a world of extremely fast, AI-driven change. Watch the full interview:

If James Talarico, Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas, wins the race, it will be the first time a Democrat wins a Senate election in the state since 1988. As results begin to come in, Talarico holds an early lead over Republican candidate Ken Paxton. on.wsj.com/4yUk9uN

Sources: institutional investors told Anthropic that its IPO valuation should be around $1.5T to $1.6T, down from estimates of $2T, citing a tech stock selloff (Wall Street Journal)

(Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

Wall Street is starting to call the shots in America's AI buildout:

“The bar is going higher and higher in terms of proving to lenders that this investment will turn into sufficient revenue"

New from me, @RWhelanWSJ & @jackpitcher20

wsj.com/finance/the-ne…

The ChatGPT maker’s latest funding round values it at $1.25 trillion, less than its $1.4 trillion target. on.wsj.com/4A55X3a

SCOOP: @lightspeedvp has raised more than $750 million for its new AI Renaissance Fund and a related vehicle that will acquire existing businesses and improve them with AI. My latest: wsj.com/pro/venture-ca…

Anthropic's IPO filing was just released. We break down the details of the blockbuster offering and what it means for markets.

Follow live updates: 🔗 on.wsj.com/48hxRgm

Last month, OpenAI called in the three outspoken safety researchers and asked them to unlock their personal phones. It was conducting a leak investigation into a story in The Information about Astra’s use of opaque architectures, and the company’s plans to continue down that path. A week later, at 2 p.m., they were all fired.

Our story, w/ @ZeffMax and @berber_jin1 , looks at the battle over how much AI companies should share with third-party monitors like METR and Redwood to ensure AI safety wsj.com/tech/ai/the-si… via @WSJ

New: The three researchers OpenAI fired last month spent the summer fighting to keep AI's chain-of-thought process visible.

Then, OpenAI asked to see their Signal chats. A week later, they were let go.

More below from @keachhagey, @berber_jin1, and me.

wsj.com/tech/ai/the-si…

SCOOP: Anthropic's latest draft S-1 documents show financials results for the first half of the year, gigantic spending plans for the future, and a laundry list of risk factors.

- Anthropic recorded a net loss of $80.7 billion in the first half of the year, tied to accounting adjustments related to previous financings

- Anthropic is set to spend >$600 billion on compute in the coming years, inclusive of cloud agreements and chip leases.

More in @WSJ:

My latest on a Wall Street soap opera:

Hedge-fund billionaire John Overdeck is fighting a two-front war--against an estranged wife who wants more of his fortune, and a business partner battling him for control of their $85 billion firm, Two Sigma.

wsj.com/finance/invest…

Bosses in tech and beyond are getting radically candid about the long hours they want from job seekers. on.wsj.com/4dMCXV8