Anthropic in Talks to Raise $10 Billion 💰

Welcome to another edition of Horizon AI,

Anthropic is nearing a deal to raise about $10 billion in a new funding round, which would make it one of the largest megarounds to date for an AI startup.

Let’s get into it!

Read Time: 4.5 min

Here's what's new today in the Horizon AI

• Anthropic Nears $10 Billion Funding Round

• Multiple Publications Embroiled in an AI Fakery Scandal

• AI Tutorial: How to get Gemini to read your Docs aloud

• AI Tools to check out

• AI Findings/Resources

• The Latest in AI and Tech 💡

AI News

ANTHROPIC

Anthropic Nears $10 Billion Funding Round

The company was initially in advanced discussions to raise up to $5 billion, but strong investor demand has pushed the amount close to $10 billion.

Details:

• The round is being led by Iconiq Capital, with other expected participants including TPG Inc., Lightspeed Venture Partners, Spark Capital, and Menlo Ventures.

• The company has also held discussions with the Qatar Investment Authority and the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC about possible participation.

• To date, Anthropic has raised $14.3 billion across twelve rounds, and with this new deal, its valuation could rise to $170 billion or more—one of the biggest jumps for an AI startup—after being valued at $61.5 billion earlier this year.

The new funding should help the company compete with rivals such as OpenAI and xAI, which have each raised billions this year to invest in data centers and talent for building AI models.

Source

AI IN MEDIA

Multiple Publications Embroiled in an AI Fakery Scandal

Several renowned publications, including Wired and Business Insider, were tricked into publishing multiple stories with fake sources written by an AI “freelancer.”

Details:

• Using the byline Maraux Blanchard, the writer published articles in several U.S. and U.K. outlets that appear to have been generated by AI.

• Most of the stories contained case studies of named people whose details were impossible to verify.

• For example, Wired published a story in May titled “They Fell in Love Playing Minecraft. Then the Game Became Their Wedding Venue,” which cited a “Jessica Hu,” a 34-year-old ordained officiant based in Chicago who apparently doesn’t exist.

At least six publications have already taken down the articles, although most of them remained live for weeks. Wired’s management even acknowledged the mistake, saying: “If anyone should be able to catch an AI scammer, it’s Wired. In fact, we do, all the time … Unfortunately, one got through.”

Source

AI Tutorial

How to get Gemini to read your Docs aloud

Google Docs recently got a new feature that lets you generate an audio version of your documents using Gemini. It’s a helpful way to catch mistakes and hear how your writing actually sounds.

1. Open a document in Google Docs.

2. Go to Tools > Audio and click on “Listen to this tab.” The default voice will start reading your document aloud from the beginning.

3. Using the floating audio toolbar, you can pause, scrub forward or backward, and adjust the playback speed from 0.5x to 2x.

4. In the same floating toolbar, click the three-dot More options button to change the voice. You can choose from Narrator, Educator, Teacher, Persuader, Explainer, Coach, or Motivator.

5. There’s also an option to “Insert an audio button,” which places a play button directly into the document so readers can listen with a single click.

6. Once added, you can hover over the button and click the pencil icon to customize its label, color, and size.

*Note: For now, it’s accessible only in English and only on desktop.

AI Tools to check out

🔥 AiPPT.com: Transform ideas into stunning presentations instantly.

📚 StudyPal: The #1 tool to learn anything 10x faster.

👨‍💻 Emergent: Create production-ready applications from natural language.

📽 Wavel AI: All-in-one AI video agent. From AI dubbing and video translation to text-to-video, voice cloning, AI voice generation, and auto subtitles.

👀 April: An intelligent voice assistant app that connects to your everyday tools like Gmail and Google Calendar.

AI Findings/Resources

👉 Zero to your first AI agent in 26 minutes (no code)

💡 A really solid context engineering template made by Anthropic

👀 Economics and AI take off

📈 A simple technique to make RAG up to 40x faster & 32x memory efficient

🎓 The best-case scenario for AI in schools

The latest in AI and Tech

Court filings reveal Elon Musk sought help from Mark Zuckerberg to try to buy OpenAI

Musk tried to enlist Zuckerberg for the $97.4 billion bid that his consortium made for OpenAI earlier this year, but neither Zuckerberg nor Meta signed the letter of intent to participate.

ElevenLabs Launches v3 (alpha) API

The updated text-to-speech model is now available through the API. The new version adds more expressive options, enhanced controls, a Dialogue mode, and support for over 70 languages.

Elon Musk claims Grok 5 has ‘a shot at being true AGI’

The billionaire took to X to hype up his upcoming Grok 5 model, which “begins training next month.” He also claimed that Grok Imagine will soon be better than VEO 3 “in every respect, with no exceptions.”

OpenAI announces New Delhi office

Just days after launching a ChatGPT plan exclusive to Indian users, the company announced it will set up a local team and open a corporate office in New Delhi in the coming months.

The move aims to tap into India’s rapidly growing AI sector and its position as the world’s second-largest internet and smartphone market after China.

Google mocks Apple's AI struggles

At "Made by Google 2025," the senior vice president of Platforms and Devices took a shot at Apple when asked about AI for phones, saying: “There has been a lot of hype about this, and frankly, a lot of broken promises too, but Gemini is the real deal.”

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Gina 👩🏻‍💻