Artificial intelligence is driving both euphoria and friction across the tech sector today. Anthropic has vaulted past OpenAI after a staggering $65 billion raise valued the Claude maker at $965 billion, underscoring how fiercely investors are betting on the next phase of generative AI. At the same time, the legal backlash is deepening: CNN is suing Perplexity, alleging the startup copied and redistributed thousands of copyrighted articles, videos, and images to fuel its products, a case that could further test the boundaries of AI training and media ownership. Beyond software, AI is moving into the physical world as Waymo opens passenger rides in its new purpose-built Ojai robotaxi minivan. And in infrastructure, IBM and Red Hat are putting $5 billion behind AI-powered open-source security. Even geopolitics is in the mix, with Nvidia’s Jensen Huang joining a Tsinghua advisory board chaired by Tim Cook, signaling how central China remains to global tech strategy.