Anthropic's AI Models Are Also Behaving Badly

Top News

Anthropic disclosed that three of its AI models hacked unsuspecting companies during cybersecurity tests after a configuration error gave them live internet access, leading the systems to mistake real-world targets for part of their benchmarking exercises. TechCrunch has more here.

A federal judge said the Trump administration still has not produced evidence justifying its designation of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk, questioning claims that the company could alter deployed models and warning the ban may be retaliation for criticizing Pentagon policy. TechCrunch has more here.

AI Hedge Fund Situational Awareness May Have Sold Its Public Portfolio, But It Still Has Its Anthropic Shares

Image Credits: PM Images / Getty Images

By Marina Temkin

Situational Awareness, a hedge fund formed by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, has sold the majority of its public stock portfolio to Ken Griffin’s Citadel following steep losses over the past month, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Thursday. It’s a big comedown for the rising star who has been described as both “scarily smart,” and “brash.”

German-born Aschenbrenner, who is 25, had no prior trading experience before launching the fund in 2024. He gained prominence for his investment thesis after publishing essays arguing that scaling AI would require a major build-up in semiconductors, compute, memory, and energy infrastructure.

He joined OpenAI’s “superalignment” team in 2023, two years after graduating as valedictorian from Columbia at 19 (he enrolled at age 15). But he was dismissed from the company a year later over what it described as an improper disclosure of internal information. At the time, that team was led by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and AI researcher Jan Leike. Soon after, Sutskever left to start his own company, Leike joined rival Anthropic, and Aschenbrenner launched his fund.

Things couldn’t have been going better for Situational Awareness until very recently. The fund returned 439% for the year through June, Financial Times reported. Assets under management reportedly grew to as much as $45 billion during their peak before the fund’s positions began dropping sharply amid a broader decline in AI infrastructure investments, CNBC reported.

Even after losses mounted, Aschenbrenner didn’t flinch. In a July 24 letter to investors seen by FT, he called the selloff one of the best buying opportunities since early last year and invited clients to commit fresh capital starting August 1. According to Bloomberg, the appeal didn’t garner the commitments he’d hoped would materialize.

Massive Fundings

Antora Energy, an eight-year-old startup based in Sunnyvale, CA, that builds thermal batteries that store electricity as heat to supply industrial facilities, data centers, and grids with long-duration power, raised a $550 million Series C round co-led by G2 Venture Partners and Eclipse, with Ribbit Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Activate Capital, John Doerr, Westly Group, StepStone Group, and Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures as well as previous investors Decarbonization Partners, Impact Science Ventures, Trust Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Lowercarbon Capital also piling on. More here.

Function, a four-year-old Austin startup that provides consumers with recurring lab testing, optional medical imaging, and personalized health insights to monitor risks before symptoms develop, raised a $450 million round led by General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund. More here.

Inforcer, a four-year-old London startup that helps managed service providers manage Microsoft 365 accounts and security controls for small-business clients, raised a $50 million Series C round led by Insight Partners, with Dawn Capital and Meritech Capital also stepping up. The company has raised a total of $110 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Onyx Security, a two-year-old Tel Aviv and New York startup that helps enterprises control AI agents by managing permissions, monitoring activity, and blocking malicious or unintended behavior, raised a $113 million Series B at an estimated $640 million post-money valuation. The deal was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with Cyberstarts, TCV, Conviction, FirstMark, Vintage, QuantumLight, and G Squared also anteing up. CTech has more here.

Simile, a one-year-old Palo Alto startup that creates simulated users that help companies test marketing ideas and product concepts before running research with real customers, raised a $200 million Series B round at a $2 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Greenoaks, with Definition as well as previous investors Index Ventures, Hanabi, Bain Capital Ventures, A*, Factory, and CVS Health Ventures also chipping in. TechCrunch has more here.

Xsight Labs, a nine-year-old Tel Aviv startup that makes programmable data processing units and Ethernet switches for AI and cloud data center networks, raised a $300+ million round at a $2.8 billion post-money valuation. Fidelity was the deal lead, with Aliya Capital Partners, Atreides Management, Artisan Partners, Battery Ventures, Diagonal Capital, Intel Capital, Key1 Capital, Maverick Capital, Sienna, T. Rowe Price, Union Group, and Valor Equity Partners also participating. More here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Bloom Security, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup that helps security teams map applications, AI agents, plugins, and code on employee devices and block risky access, raised a $20 million seed round co-led by Glilot Capital Partners and Ten Eleven Ventures, with Okta Ventures and Runtime Ventures also chiming in. CTech has more here.

DataBahn, a two-year-old startup based in Plano, TX, that helps enterprises reduce, enrich, govern, and route telemetry data from hundreds of sources to security, analytics, and AI systems, raised a $40 million Series B round led by Insight Partners, with previous investors Forgepoint Capital, GTM Capital, and S3 Ventures also opting in. The company has raised a total of $59 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Dili, a three-year-old New York startup that reviews payroll, wage, and other compliance data to catch audit errors across federal energy, infrastructure, construction, and manufacturing projects, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Khosla Ventures, with Garry Tan, Allianz, Darren Bechtel, and Rebel Fund also anteing up. The company has raised a total of $21.7 million. More here.

Discern Security, a three-year-old startup based in Sunnyvale, CA, that helps companies find and fix gaps in their existing security controls, raised a $13 million Series A round led by Forgepoint Capital, with First Rays Ventures, Growth Enjin Partners, and Vela Ventures also participating. SecurityWeek has more here.

Epitel, a Salt Lake City startup that provides wireless EEG monitoring that analyzes brain activity at home and in clinics to flag potential seizures and speed diagnosis, raised a $26 million Series B round co-led by Catalyst Health Ventures and Genoa Ventures. More here.

Foundational Industries, a New York startup founded this year that builds factories designed to be run by AI software, starting with custom data center hardware, raised a $25 million seed round co-led by BoxGroup and Zigg Ventures, with Abstract Ventures, Adverb Ventures, Buckley Ventures, and Offline Ventures also participating. Fortune has more here.

Intropy, a two-year-old London startup that automates inventory, pricing, and other operating decisions for spare parts distributors, manufacturers, and recyclers inside their existing ERP systems, raised an $11 million seed round led by Felix Capital, with Quiet Capital as well as previous investor General Catalyst also taking part. Tech Funding News has more here.

UnitAI, a two-year-old Boston startup that automates item-level inventory management, ecommerce fulfillment, and returns for retailers and third-party logistics providers across existing warehouse networks, raised a $12 million seed round co-led by Prologis Ventures, Dynamo Ventures, and Ground Up Ventures, with eGateway Capital, Recursive Ventures, Think + Ventures, ZEP Fund, and Crosscourt also digging in. Robotics Tomorrow has more here.

Smaller Fundings