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1.	Anthropic To Build Data Centers in Texas, New York By Stephanie Palazzolo Source: The Information

Anthropic plans to invest $50 billion building its own data centers, the first time it has done so, in Texas and New York, the AI startup announced in a blog post on Wednesday. Anthropic said it would partner with London-based cloud startup Fluidstack on the data centers.

Anthropic said that the projects would create approximately 800 permanent jobs and 2,400 construction jobs, with sites coming online throughout 2026. The company added that the data centers would support President Trump’s goals to strengthen American dominance over the AI market.

So far, Anthropic has chosen to rent AI chips from cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Google. This would be its first foray into building the data centers itself, a similar approach to that of its competitor OpenAI.

2.	OpenAI Appeals to Public in Battle over Evidence with New York Times By Catherine Perloff Source: The Information

OpenAI has asked a court to reverse a ruling requiring it to hand over records of 20 million conversations between users and ChatGPT to the New York Times company. OpenAI says the request was “an invasion of user privacy.”

As part of the Times’ copyright infringement lawsuit against the ChatGPT creator, the Times has asked for access to 20 million conversations between users and ChatGPT. The Times originally asked for 1.4 billion chats but later narrowed the request to 20 million, a random sample of chats between December 2022 and November 2024. Judge Ona Wang, who is overseeing the case in the Southern District of New York, has sided with the Times, ordering OpenAI to hand over the chats by Friday.

While OpenAI said it is removing personal identifying information from the chats, it is still fighting the court on handing over the information, as OpenAI treats users chats with ChatGPT as “among the most sensitive information in your digital life,” according to a a blog post on Wednesday from Dane Stuckey, chief information security officer at OpenAI. A New York Times spokesperson said OpenAI’s blog “purposely misleads.”

“No ChatGPT user’s privacy is at risk,” the spokesperson said. “This fear-mongering is all the more dishonest given that OpenAI’s own terms of service permit the company to train its models on users’ chats and turn over chats for litigation.”

3.	Alibaba to Revamp Struggling AI Chatbot App By Juro Osawa Source: Bloomberg

Alibaba Group is planning to overhaul the design of its artificial intelligence chatbot, as the Chinese tech giant tries to make the struggling app more competitive, Bloomberg reported.

In China’s consumer AI chatbot market, Alibaba’s Tongyi app lags far behind rival apps developed by other Chinese tech giants, such as ByteDance’s Doubao and Tencent Holdings’ Yuanbao. In October, Doubao had 159 million monthly active users, while Tongyi only had 7.4 million, according to AIcpb.com, a Chinese website that tracks AI apps.

As part of the makeover, the Tongyi app will change its name to Qwen, the same as Alibaba’s AI models, according to Bloomberg. After the redesign, the Alibaba app is expected to look more like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, including features such as shopping, the report said.

Alibaba is one of China’s leaders in AI model development, and it has an advantage in AI services for corporate customers thanks to the strength of Alibaba Cloud, China’s largest cloud service provider. However, when it comes to AI apps for consumers, Alibaba trails ByteDance, whose Doubao chatbot is China’s most popular AI app. To appeal to consumers, Alibaba earlier this year overhauled its Quark AI search app and turned it into an all-purpose AI assistant.

4.	Circle Drops Over Lower Interest Rates, Rising Costs By Yueqi Yang Source: The Information

Stablecoin issuer Circle’s revenue jumped 66% in the third quarter, but its shares fell 11% Wednesday, weighed down by concerns over declining interest rates and rising distribution costs to partners like Coinbase. It announced it’s exploring launching a token to incentivize the adoption of its Arc blockchain for stablecoin transactions.

Circle reported third-quarter net income of $214 million on revenue of $740 million. It makes 96% of its revenue from interest income generated by reserve assets such as short-term Treasuries that back its stablecoin USDC. Its margin – revenue less distribution costs – fell to 39% in the third quarter, down by 2.7% from a year ago.

Circle is facing new competition from companies such as Anchorage Digital, which issues stablecoins on behalf of clients like Western Union. It is also paying more of its interest income to partners such as Coinbase. Some new competitors pay most or all of their revenue to their partners.

Circle CFO Jeremy Fox-Green said in an interview on TITV after the earnings that the company will focus on growing its stablecoin network and has no plan to issue stablecoins for others in the immediate future.

5.	Skims Boosts Valuation to $5 Billion By Ann Gehan Source: The Information

Skims, the apparel and shapewear brand cofounded by Kim Kardashian, has raised $225 million in new funding, the company said Wednesday. The funding round, which was led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, boosts the company’s valuation to $5 billion, up from its $4 billion valuation in 2023.

The company said the funding will be used to expand Skims’s fleet of brick-and-mortar stores. Skims currently has 18 stores, in addition to selling its products online and through other retailers like Saks and Bloomingdale’s. The company is profitable and its net sales this year will be over $1 billion, the company said. Last year, the company had been preparing to interview banks to lead an initial public offering, but Skims CEO Jens Grede has since downplayed the idea of an IPO.

In addition to expanding its retail footprint, Skims has been branching out into new categories. It recently launched a line of athletic clothing through a collaboration with Nike that could expand to footwear and accessories in the future. Skims also acquired a stake in Kardashian’s beauty brand from cosmetics giant Coty in March and recently hired an executive to launch beauty and fragrance products for Skims.