Good morning. There’s a lengthy essay by AI influencer Matt Shumer getting a lot of buzz recently. The 5,000-word essay talks about AI’s looming impact on knowledge workers, raising the alarm that jobs are about to be radically upended. Fortune ran an adapted version of Shumer’s post as a commentary piece, which you can read here.
Once you’ve read that, read Fortune AI Editor Jeremy Kahn’s take. Kahn, who wrote a book about AI that predicts the technology will massively transform knowledge work by 2029, believes Shumer may be directionally right on some level, but says Shumer is basing his argument on flawed assumptions and ultimately engaging in fear mongering.
It’s a great point-counterpoint debate to read over the long weekend. We’ll be off Monday incidentally, for Presidents’ Day, and back in the saddle on Tuesday.
Today’s tech news below.
Alexei Oreskovic
@lexnfx
alexei.oreskovic@fortune.com
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Anthropic scoops up $30 billion
Anthropic announced Thursday that it's raised $30 billion in new funding, and the five-year-old AI startup is now valued by its investors $380 billion.
The new funding will "fuel the frontier research, product development, and infrastructure expansions that have made Anthropic the market leader in enterprise AI and coding," the company said in a lengthy, nearly 1,000-word press release that trumpeted a $14 billion revenue run rate and more than 500 customers (including 8 of the Fortune 10) that spend at least $1 million a year on its products. (one thing not mentioned in the lengthy press release was the word IPO).
The lead investors in Anthropic's Series G round are Coatue and GIC, with D. E. Shaw Ventures, Dragoneer, Founders Fund, Iconiq, and MGX as "co-lead" investors. And that's just the VIPs. Anthropic listed another 36—yes 36!—investors (including Microsoft and Nvidia's previously announced investment) in the $30 billion funding. Talk about a party round.
Since it was founded by disaffected OpenAI staffers in 2021, Anthropic has raised a total of $57 billion. Perhaps more remarkable is how quickly it's attained its $380 billion valuation. While OpenAI, currently valued at $500 billion and seeking more funding at a $750 billion valuation, and SpaceX, currently valued at $1.25 trillion, are still well above Anthropic, those two companies were founded in 2015 and 2002 respectively. As the old ad slogan for those slim cigarettes used to say, You've come a long way, baby. —AO
Workday CEO's $139 million package and the SaaS selloff
By bringing cofounder Aneel Bhusri back to the CEO job, Workday has turned to a classic Silicon Valley tradition to deal with the AI threat currently squeezing software company stocks: the return of the founder.
To lure Bhusri back to the CEO job he left two years ago, Workday is giving him a $138.8 million pay package comprised of cash and performance-based and restricted stock. More than half of the package, $75 million, only pays out if Bhusri can hit a series of undisclosed stock price targets over the next five years.
Perhaps more telling is the other half: Roughly $60 million in restricted stock requires only that Bhusri stick around at Workday for the next four years, with no performance targets whatsoever. With Wall Street bearish on SaaS companies, Workday is effectively recognizing the deep skepticism that even its founder-savior will face in successfully making the transition into the AI age. For a deeper look at Bhusri's pay package, click here. —Amanda Gerut
Anthropic says it will cover electricity price increases from data center expansion
AI firm Anthropic says it will offset any electricity price increases caused by its data centers. The AI company announced this week it will compensate utilities for rate increases in areas where it can't fully fund grid infrastructure improvements or generate enough new power itself. In a statement to NBC News, CEO Dario Amodei emphasized that American households shouldn't be forced to foot the bill for AI development.
The initiative includes investments in additional energy generation and demand-reduction technologies during peak usage periods.
The announcement follows growing political and public controversy of the AI industry's energy footprint. Lawmakers in New York recently proposed temporarily halting new data center permits, while federal legislators have introduced bills requiring tech companies to finance the expansion of electricity infrastructure.
Anthropic's commitment is similar to pledges made by competitors Microsoft and OpenAI, as the sector faces mounting pressure to address its environmental and economic impact. Some experts project that the surge in demand could cause prices to jump 25% by 2030 in areas with concentrated data center activity.—Beatrice Nolan
More tech
—YouTube Launches on Apple Vision Pro. Signs of life for Apple's headset.
—Pinterest earnings fall short. An 'exogenous shock' from tariffs.
—New ByteDance AI video model going viral in China. Meet Seedance 2.0.
—Waymo rolls out new robotaxis. Goodbye Jaguar SUVs, hello Geely vans.
—Instagram boss says he’s paid $900K per year. With stock, sometimes up to $20 million.
