Welcome to another week of The AI Loop, where we break down the stories shaping the AI landscape. From new infrastructure commitments to fast-growing startups and global model competition, here are the updates worth paying attention to.
Perlix AI Update
We are also excited to share that we joined the Circle Alliance Program. Stable and transparent payment rails are vital as we scale the Perlix AI onchain contributor network, and this collaboration supports the infrastructure needed to grow a global community of AI contributors.
Big Stories
Anthropic invests $50 billion in American AI infrastructure
Anthropic is making a major bet on American AI infrastructure with a $50 billion investment into custom data centers in Texas and New York. These sites are optimized for high-efficiency AI workloads and will come online throughout 2026.
The investment aims to support Anthropic’s growing customer base, which now includes more than 300,000 businesses, while enabling continued frontier research across alignment, interpretability, and model safety.
Source: Anthropic
Cursor AI Startup Raises $2.3 Billion at $29.3 Billion Valuation
Cursor, an AI coding startup, raised $2.3 billion at a $29.3 billion valuation, solidifying its position as one of the most valuable AI development platforms. Since its 2023 launch, Cursor has surpassed $1 billion in annualized revenue and grown to more than 300 employees as adoption accelerates across software teams.
The round drew backing from Accel, a16z, Thrive, Google, and Nvidia. Cursor’s in-house models now generate more code than most competing systems, placing the company alongside OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI. CEO Michael Truell says the new investment will fuel deeper research and unlock the platform’s next major breakthroughs.
Source: Bloomberg
Alibaba Prepares Major AI App Overhaul to Rival ChatGPT
Alibaba’s stock surged after revealing plans to relaunch its Tongyi app as Qwen, a more advanced AI assistant designed to compete with ChatGPT. The upgrade will introduce autonomous task execution and richer agentic behavior to drive better user engagement and higher transaction volume.
This shift aligns with Alibaba’s broader AI momentum. The company’s cloud segment grew 26%, supported by rapid AI adoption and new capex commitments. With Qwen’s overhaul, Alibaba is stepping up its position in the accelerating consumer AI landscape.
Source: Seeking Alpha
Quick Bites
China’s Kimi K2 Beats GPT-5 with a $4.6M Breakthrough
A $4.6M open-source challenger from China, Kimmy K2 by Moonshot AI, posted results that edge out GPT-5 on demanding benchmarks, stoking debate about the sustainability of closed AI giants and previewing a more competitive, open future.
Source: Techwire Asia
IFS and 1X Technologies Partner to Bring Industrial AI to Factories
IFS and 1X Technologies launched a strategic partnership to deliver AI-powered solutions focused on industrial and infrastructure workplaces. Their joint products aim to improve operational efficiency and maintenance workflows in factories, utilities, and emergency response environments
Source: Yahoo Finance
Stay in the Loop
That’s the end of this week’s The AI Loop! Catch you all next week for more exciting news worth sharing.
Join the Perlix AI community on Telegram to stay up-to-date on the next drop of insights from across the ecosystem.