The federal judge used the term "Orwellian" to block the Pentagon’s supply chain risk label against Anthropic. Huawei's AI chips received orders from ByteDance and Alibaba for the first time, while SMIC’s supply to Iran was exposed.
1｜Judge Halts Pentagon's Retaliation Against Anthropic, New Model Leak and IPO Plans Exposed on Same Day
California Federal Judge Rita Lin ruled on Thursday to suspend the Pentagon's decision to list Anthropic as a "supply chain risk." The ruling stated that the Pentagon's reason for labeling was that Anthropic "expressed hostility through the media." Judge Lin labeled this logic as "Orwellian," using dissent as a basis to designate an American company as an adversary.
The conflict originated when Anthropic refused to use Claude for autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance. The Pentagon subsequently invoked military powers typically directed against foreign adversaries, ordering all federal agencies to stop using Claude. The court's position was straightforward: an AI company faced political retaliation for saying "no," which does not hold up legally.
On the same day, Fortune discovered that a configuration error in Anthropic's CMS exposed a new model codenamed Mythos, which Anthropic confirmed as a "stepwise leap in capability." Bloomberg reported that Anthropic is discussing an IPO as early as October, with a valuation of $380 billion. The court blocked the political retaliation, while the market simultaneously saw signals of technological advancements and plans for listing.
(Source: Fortune / Bloomberg / The Information / The Verge / CNBC / U.S. Federal Court)
2｜Huawei Ascend 950PR Secures Orders from ByteDance and Alibaba, SMIC's Supply to Iranian Military Exposed
Reuters reported exclusively on Thursday that Huawei's new generation AI chip Ascend 950PR performed well in customer tests, with ByteDance and Alibaba planning to place orders. The computing power reaches 1.56 petaflops (FP4), twice that of NVIDIA’s H20 version for Huawei. Huawei plans to ship approximately 750,000 units this year, with mass production set before the end of April.
Another exclusive report from Reuters indicated that U.S. officials claimed that SMIC began supplying chip manufacturing equipment and technical training to the Iranian military about a year ago. These two lines intersect with a previous report on chip smuggling, showing that the U.S. export control system is loosening at both ends: one end is China's alternative chips reaching practical thresholds, and the other end is forming a technology mutual assistance network among sanctioned targets.
NeurIPS 2026 has linked paper submissions to U.S. sanctions for the first time, prompting the Chinese Computer Society to call for a boycott, with senior researchers from Alibaba and Tencent publicly resigning from the conference. Decoupling is seeping into the most fundamental level of technological exchange.
(Source: Reuters / CNBC / SCMP / Chinese Computer Society)
3｜Pentagon Considers Sending 10,000 Troops to Middle East, Vance Takes Over as Chief Negotiator for Iran Talks
Axios reported that the White House and Pentagon are considering deploying at least 10,000 ground combat troops to the Middle East, joining the approximately 5,000 Marines and 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers already deployed. The potential deployment locations are likely within striking distance of Iran and Kharg Island. Kharg Island handles 90% of Iran's oil exports, which Trump referred to as Iran's "crown jewel."
Troop increases and the negotiation window are progressing simultaneously. Trump announced on Thursday that the deadline for striking Iranian energy facilities has been extended by 10 days to April 6. Tehran has indicated a preference for dialogue with Vance rather than with Vitkov and Kushner. Trump officially confirmed Vance as the chief negotiator during Thursday's cabinet meeting.
The troop increase and extension may seem contradictory, but the logic is consistent. The deployment of 10,000 troops prepares for military action to seize the island, while the negotiation window offers Iran a final opportunity for concessions. Vance taking over the negotiations itself signals a concession, as he is the most skeptical individual about this war within the cabinet. (Continued from Early Report)
(Source: Axios / Stars and Stripes / NPR / Pentagon)
4｜OpenAI's Advertising Pilot Hits 100 Million Annualized Revenue, But Enterprise Clients Are Accelerating Departure
OpenAI's ChatGPT advertising pilot launched in the U.S. just six weeks ago, with annualized revenue surpassing $100 million. Over 600 advertisers have joined, with about 85% of free users able to see ads, but the actual daily reach rate is below 20%. OpenAI is testing expansion into Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
The consumer side is rapidly monetizing, while the enterprise side shows a completely different trend. Companies 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 raised an internal "Code Red" alarm at the end of last year, planning to expand the workforce to 8,000 by year-end and to cut side projects focusing on coding and enterprise products.
The revenue crossing the $100 million mark demonstrates that the monetization channel for free user traffic has been opened. However, enterprise clients care less about brand recognition and more about security, controllability, and customization, which are exactly the strengths of today's other protagonist, Anthropic. The differentiation of the two AI business models has become particularly clear within a single day.
(Source: Reuters / The Information / CNBC)
Also Worth Knowing ↓
Meta has increased its investment in the Texas AI data center to $10 billion. On the same day that the Nasdaq fell into correction territory, Meta's AI capital expenditure annual plan has exceeded $70 billion. (Source: Reuters)
Dow Chemical CEO warned that petrochemical shortages resulting from the Iran war could extend throughout the year. Approximately 50% of the global polyethylene supply is constrained or offline, and Asian naphtha cracking profits surged from $108 per ton before the conflict to over $400. Dow estimates that resolving the bottleneck could take 275 days. (Source: Fortune / Dow Chemical)
Moonshot AI seeks Hong Kong IPO amid tightening regulation. This would be the first IPO case among Chinese AI startup companies with large models. Anthropic also announced IPO news on the same day, as Chinese and American AI unicorns simultaneously prepare for the public market. (Source: WSJ)
Tether has hired KPMG to audit USDT reserves and brought in PwC for consulting, paving the way for expansion into the U.S. market. Stablecoin legislation has accelerated the compliance countdown. (Source: CoinDesk)
Bitcoin fell to a two-week low, below $68,000, with $300 million in long positions liquidated. Bitcoin ETFs experienced a net outflow of $171 million in a single day, the largest in three weeks. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond approached a one-year high of 4.5%. (Source: CoinDesk / Bloomberg)
Tencent Cloud launched the panoramic view of its Agent product, upgrading its MaaS platform to TokenHub. Covering five major dimensions: infrastructure, model ecosystem, application scenarios, and security, it opens the WeChat and enterprise WeChat skill ecosystem. (Source: 36Kr)
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