> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://adjacent.media/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # AI Is Eating Everything, Including Itself, Money Moves, Friction, Recalls, and Awkward Court Moments - URL: https://adjacent.media/scan/2026-05-14-am/ - Published: 2026-05-14T10:05:14.000Z - Updated: 2026-05-14T10:05:14.000Z - Description: Anthropic is chasing a near-trillion-dollar valuation, SoftBank is booking $25B in paper gains on OpenAI, and a new startup is already pitching recursive superintelligence to Nvidia. The FDA chief quit, Waymo’s robots drove into standing water, and Sam Altman had a rough day in court. - Author: Jonathan Greene - Tags: #scan-am, #scan Anthropic is chasing a near-trillion-dollar valuation, SoftBank is booking $25B in paper gains on OpenAI, and a new startup is already pitching recursive superintelligence to Nvidia. The FDA chief quit, Waymo's robots drove into standing water, and Sam Altman had a rough day in court. > **$900B** — Anthropic's reported target valuation in early fundraising talks, on a $30B raise — which would make it the most valuable private AI company on earth. *(Bloomberg)* --- ### Machines & Minds #### [Anthropic In Talks to Raise $30 Billion at $900 Billion Valuation](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-12/anthropic-in-talks-to-raise-30-billion-at-900-billion-valuation?ref=adjacent.media) Early-stage talks, so treat the number as a signal of direction rather than a done deal — but the direction is straight up. *(Bloomberg)* #### [Richard Socher's Recursive Superintelligence Raised $650M+ at a $4B Valuation](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/technology/notable-researchers-join-4-billion-effort-to-build-self-improving-ai.html?ref=adjacent.media) GV, Nvidia, and AMD are backing a startup explicitly premised on AI that improves itself — either the most important bet in tech or the most alarming one. *(New York Times)* #### [Google Is About to Release a New Gemini Model](https://open.substack.com/pub/sourcesnews/p/google-about-to-release-new-gemini) Sources say the I/O announcement will land roughly in GPT-5's class — Google needs this one to land clean. *(Sources)* #### [Sam Altman Discussed Launching an AI Compute Company Majority-Owned by OpenAI](https://sources.news/p/sam-altman-stargate-redux-maybe?ref=adjacent.media) Essentially Stargate II, but with OpenAI holding the controlling stake — Altman keeps pulling the infrastructure lever. *(Sources)* #### [Anthropic in Advanced Talks to Acquire Stainless for at Least $300M](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/anthropic-talks-buy-developer-tools-startup-used-openai-google?ref=adjacent.media) Buying the SDK plumbing that OpenAI and Google already use is a sharp developer-ecosystem move. *(The Information)* > $25B\*\* — The paper gain on SoftBank's OpenAI stake that drove Q4 net income 3x above estimates, pushing its total OpenAI investment toward $64.6B by October. \*(Financial Times) ### Connected World #### [SoftBank Reports Q4 Net Income Up 3x to \~$11.6B, Driven by OpenAI Stake](https://www.ft.com/content/85b9fe04-0d70-482e-bd27-9c87c1ebfc01?ref=adjacent.media) Masayoshi Son's entire bull thesis is now basically one line item — and it's working, at least on paper. *(Financial Times)* #### [Trump Family Made \~$1.55B from World Liberty Financial Token Sales](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-12/quiet-token-sales-boosted-trump-crypto-wealth-by-660-million?ref=adjacent.media) The \~$660M net fortune boost is the kind of number that tends to attract congressional attention eventually. *(Bloomberg)* #### [Paymentology Raised $175M for Real-Time Card Processing Infrastructure](https://tech.eu/2026/05/12/paymentology-targets-new-growth-areas-with-175m-investment/?ref=adjacent.media) B2B payment rails remain a reliable place to raise a large round while everyone else chases AI. *(Tech.eu)* #### [Chip Stocks Pull Back Hard — Qualcomm Down 11.46%, Intel Down 6.82%](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/12/qualcomm-chip-stocks-record-ai.html?ref=adjacent.media) The AI-driven rally gave; now it's taking some back — whether this is a breather or a turn is the question. *(CNBC)* ### Connected World #### [Waymo Recalls \~3,800 Robotaxis Over Flooded Road Software Issue](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/12/waymo-recalls-3800-robotaxis-after-able-drive-into-standing-water.html?ref=adjacent.media) "The cars drove into standing water" is not a headline any autonomous vehicle company wants, ever. *(CNBC)* #### [Meta Employees Protest New Mouse-Tracking Software Days Before Layoffs](https://thenextweb.com/news/meta-mouse-tracking-protest-layoffs?ref=adjacent.media) Flyers calling it an "Employee Data Extraction Factory" appearing in offices right before a mass layoff is an extraordinary vibe. *(The Next Web)* #### [Musk v. Altman: "Are You Completely Trustworthy?" — "I Believe So."](https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-faces-awkward-grilling-over-toxic-culture-of-lying-2026-5?ref=adjacent.media) Cross-examination is a brutal genre and Altman's answer is going to live rent-free in legal briefs for a while. *(Business Insider)* #### [Jensen Huang Was Left Off Trump's China Trip to Avoid Chip-Sale Awkwardness](https://www.semafor.com/article/05/12/2026/nvidia-snubbed-from-trump-china-trip-to-avoid-awkward-conversations?ref=adjacent.media) The most powerful person in semiconductors was too politically inconvenient to bring on a trade diplomacy trip — that tells you something about the bind Nvidia is in. *(Semafor)*