Artificial Intelligence

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🤖 $50M push to regulate AI

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

Advocates for AI safety and regulation — including AI researchers themselves — are emerging as a force in U.S. elections, spending nearly $50 million this election cycle on candidates who favor regulation, a new analysis shared exclusively with Axios' Maria Curi shows. Why it matters: The people building AI are increasingly spending to push for its regulation — sometimes at odds with the companies they work for. Donors tell Axios they're not primarily motivated by party affiliation or specific policy positions, but by fears that industry money will scare candidates into staying quiet about an unpopular technology. 🔭 Zoom out: Forces favoring AI acceleration — who earlier this year seemed poised to target pro-regulation candidates — haven't spent as much as opponents expected, and safety advocates see an opportunity to fill the void. Keep reading ...

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🤖 Anthropic gives Wall Street an AI bull case

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

AI companies for years have promised that smarter models would be worth the staggering cost to build them. Anthropic made that case last night in cash, Axios' Madison Mills writes. The company presented eye-popping financials to investors, saying it was cash-flow positive in the third quarter, with revenue surging nearly 50% to $16.8 billion compared to the April-to-June period. Why it matters: As Wall Street broadly spent the day fearing an AI bubble, Anthropic offered what investors have been desperate to see: evidence that frontier AI can be a sustainable business. 🔬 Zoom in: Consider just one of the stats reported by Anthropic: the company is cash-flow positive even as some of the world's most profitable companies are struggling to keep their AI spending in check. For context, Google's parent, Alphabet, long a money-printing machine, turned free cash flow negative in its second quarter as AI infrastructure investment soared. The big picture: Anthropic's early bets on coding expertise, business customers and spending discipline have paid off. Claude Code, a viral hit that brought users to Anthropic in droves, reached an estimated annualized revenue of $6 billion to $7 billion by late summer, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Customers have generally been reluctant to switch once they've adopted it, according to PitchBook data. 🥊 Reality check: Anthropic still faces enormous training costs and stock-based compensation expenses, which could weigh on its underlying profitability. And Anthropic faces more than $500 billion in planned infrastructure and computing spending over the next decade.

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⚡ Scoop: "OG" Bill Gates returns for AI fight

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Getty Images

Bill Gates is gearing up to dramatically expand his AI safety push, personally leaning on business leaders and considering a major deployment of his resources, sources tell Axios' Bradley Olson. Why it matters: The formidable, sharp-elbowed Bill Gates who built Microsoft is back. He's directing his competitive fire toward what he has come to see as one of the most important causes of his lifetime. "I can reach CEOs on this better than you can," Gates told one person he consulted on AI safety, showing an eagerness for combat that associates say is a return to "OG" form. 🔬 Zoom in: Once a voice for optimism on AI, Gates has grown dismayed by an escalation of model capabilities, alarming security incidents and what he sees as insufficient regulation, sources say. As he prepared to make the case for a far more robust regulatory framework on AI, he consulted extensively with leading AI executives, researchers, and safety advocates, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Behind the scenes: People Gates has spoken to called his advocacy a "comeback tour," an attempt to rebuild a legacy that has been tarnished by his past association with Jeffrey Epstein. Gates has said he's aware that some people may dismiss his warnings due to the Epstein ties. But he sees the stakes as too high to stay on the sidelines and believes his Rolodex, foundational tech credibility and wealth can do an immense amount of good. 🔮 What's next: Gates' calls for robust regulation will put him on a collision course with the Trump administration, which has favored a lighter regulatory touch. Keep reading.