News & Updates
The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
Anthropic's $1.5b copyright lawsuit settlement approved
A US judge has signed off on artificial intelligence company Anthropic's landmark $US1.5 billion settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by a group of authors who accused it of misusing their books to train its AI chatbot Claude. US District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin granted final approval of the settlement, the largest known settlement of a US copyright case, rejecting arguments that it was too small. The case is one of dozens brought by copyright owners including authors and news outlets against tech companies over the training of their large language models, and the first major US case to settle. "We reached this settlement in 2025, after the court's landmark ruling that training AI on books is fair use under copyright law - which remains the law today," Anthropic deputy general counsel Aparna Sridhar said in a statement. "We are pleased that more than 91 per cent of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment, and we're looking forward to bringing this matter to a close." The authors' lead lawyer, Justin Nelson, welcomed what he called a "historic settlement." "It is the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible," Nelson said in a statement, referring to payments to authors covered by the settlement. The writers sued Anthropic in 2024, arguing the company, which is backed by Amazon and Alphabet, used pirated versions of their books without permission to teach Claude to respond to human prompts. Alsup ruled last June that Anthropic made fair use of the authors' work to train Claude, but found the company violated their rights by saving more than seven million pirated books to a "central library" that would not necessarily be used for AI training. A trial was scheduled to begin last December to determine how much Anthropic owed for the alleged piracy, with potential damages running into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The settlement spurred objections from some authors who argued it was not large enough, overcompensated the plaintiffs' attorneys or wrongly excluded some copyright owners. Judge Martinez-Olguin overruled those objections in her ruling on Monday. The judge said complaints about the settlement's size were "not grounded in a realistic assessment of the overall risks and rewards of a trial," and awarded the lawyers more than $US101 million of the $US187.5 million they requested in fees. Some authors and publishers opted out of the settlement and have filed separate lawsuits against Anthropic that are still ongoing.
China's Moonshot AI Releases Open-Source Kimi K3 Model, Challenging Anthropic's Opus
The breakthrough sent ripples through global markets, causing chip stocks to tumble. A report from Zero Hedge described the release as the latest "DeepSeek moment" that sparked a chip meltdown. [1] Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 now ranks first on the Frontend code benchmark on Arena, according to the report. [1] Kimi K3 Specifications and Performance Kimi K3 contains 2.8 trillion parameters, serving as a measure of the AI's scale and processing power, according to a report by the BBC. [8] The model was trained on a dataset of 15 trillion tokens, according to Moonshot AI's technical report. The company stated that Kimi K3 achieved scores within 2% of Claude Opus on major benchmarks including MMLU, HumanEval, and GSM8K. Moonshot AI emphasized that Kimi K3 is available for free under a permissive license for both research and commercial use, with full open-source release scheduled for July 27, 2026. [8] The company's earlier Kimi K2 models had already been well received in the open-source AI market, and Kimi K3 is expected to close the gap with Anthropic's Opus 4.8, according to the Financial Times as reported by TechCrunch. [2] Open-Source vs. Proprietary: Industry Context The open-source release contrasts with Anthropic's decision to keep Opus as a proprietary, subscription-based model. Analysts noted that open-source models allow broader access but raise concerns about misuse and control. [9] A report from NaturalNews argued that China's open-source AI strategy could "crush the U.S. industry" and collapse the semiconductor bubble, as US AI companies raise prices and switch to per-token pricing. [4] Moonshot AI's move could pressure other companies to open-source their models, said analysts. Chinese tech companies have been rapidly advancing, with Beijing weighing restrictions on foreign access to China's top AI models. [3] The open-source nature of Kimi K3 could complicate enforcement of content controls that China's government imposes on domestic models, the report noted. Reactions and Expert Commentary "This is a significant step for the global AI ecosystem," said Dr. Li Wei, a professor at Tsinghua University, in an interview. "China is demonstrating its ability to compete at the frontier while sharing the technology." Some US-based researchers expressed caution. "Open-source models can accelerate innovation, but they also lower barriers for malicious actors," Dr. Sarah Johnson of Stanford University told Reuters. Moonshot AI officials defended the decision, stating that transparency fosters trust and collaboration, according to a company statement. Meanwhile, readers of The Epoch Times expressed wariness about AI's growing role in society. One reader said: "Truly, AI can be very beneficial if used correctly. Sadly, humans ruin most good ideas." [5] Implications for AI Competition and Regulation The release may intensify the technology race between the United States and China. A report noted that China currently leads in 37 of 44 critical technologies, including AI, defense, and quantum research, while the US trails in most areas. [11] China is also investing $295 billion over five years on a nationwide AI infrastructure network, according to Bloomberg News. [10] In addition, Russia and China have joined with 29 nations to create a new international body, the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), headquartered in Shanghai, to promote a "people-centered" approach to AI. [6] The Trump administration has placed export controls on advanced US models such as Anthropic's Fable 5, potentially slowing technology transfer but also accelerating China's push for self-reliance. [7] A spokesperson for the US National Security Council declined to comment directly on Kimi K3 but reiterated support for responsible AI development globally. The implications for global AI governance remain uncertain as both nations pursue policies to regulate development and distribution.
Anthropic's $1.5b copyright lawsuit settlement approved
A US judge has signed off on artificial intelligence company Anthropic's landmark $US1.5 billion settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by a group of authors who accused it of misusing their books to train its AI chatbot Claude. US District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin granted final approval of the settlement, the largest known settlement of a US copyright case, rejecting arguments that it was too small. The case is one of dozens brought by copyright owners including authors and news outlets against tech companies over the training of their large language models, and the first major US case to settle. "We reached this settlement in 2025, after the court's landmark ruling that training AI on books is fair use under copyright law - which remains the law today," Anthropic deputy general counsel Aparna Sridhar said in a statement. "We are pleased that more than 91 per cent of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment, and we're looking forward to bringing this matter to a close." The authors' lead lawyer, Justin Nelson, welcomed what he called a "historic settlement." "It is the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible," Nelson said in a statement, referring to payments to authors covered by the settlement. The writers sued Anthropic in 2024, arguing the company, which is backed by Amazon and Alphabet, used pirated versions of their books without permission to teach Claude to respond to human prompts. Alsup ruled last June that Anthropic made fair use of the authors' work to train Claude, but found the company violated their rights by saving more than seven million pirated books to a "central library" that would not necessarily be used for AI training. A trial was scheduled to begin last December to determine how much Anthropic owed for the alleged piracy, with potential damages running into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The settlement spurred objections from some authors who argued it was not large enough, overcompensated the plaintiffs' attorneys or wrongly excluded some copyright owners. Judge Martinez-Olguin overruled those objections in her ruling on Monday. The judge said complaints about the settlement's size were "not grounded in a realistic assessment of the overall risks and rewards of a trial," and awarded the lawyers more than $US101 million of the $US187.5 million they requested in fees. Some authors and publishers opted out of the settlement and have filed separate lawsuits against Anthropic that are still ongoing.
Anthropic's $1.5b copyright lawsuit settlement approved
A US judge has signed off on artificial intelligence company Anthropic's landmark $US1.5 billion settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by a group of authors who accused it of misusing their books to train its AI chatbot Claude. US District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin granted final approval of the settlement, the largest known settlement of a US copyright case, rejecting arguments that it was too small. The case is one of dozens brought by copyright owners including authors and news outlets against tech companies over the training of their large language models, and the first major US case to settle. "We reached this settlement in 2025, after the court's landmark ruling that training AI on books is fair use under copyright law - which remains the law today," Anthropic deputy general counsel Aparna Sridhar said in a statement. "We are pleased that more than 91 per cent of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment, and we're looking forward to bringing this matter to a close." The authors' lead lawyer, Justin Nelson, welcomed what he called a "historic settlement." "It is the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible," Nelson said in a statement, referring to payments to authors covered by the settlement. The writers sued Anthropic in 2024, arguing the company, which is backed by Amazon and Alphabet, used pirated versions of their books without permission to teach Claude to respond to human prompts. Alsup ruled last June that Anthropic made fair use of the authors' work to train Claude, but found the company violated their rights by saving more than seven million pirated books to a "central library" that would not necessarily be used for AI training. A trial was scheduled to begin last December to determine how much Anthropic owed for the alleged piracy, with potential damages running into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The settlement spurred objections from some authors who argued it was not large enough, overcompensated the plaintiffs' attorneys or wrongly excluded some copyright owners. Judge Martinez-Olguin overruled those objections in her ruling on Monday. The judge said complaints about the settlement's size were "not grounded in a realistic assessment of the overall risks and rewards of a trial," and awarded the lawyers more than $US101 million of the $US187.5 million they requested in fees. Some authors and publishers opted out of the settlement and have filed separate lawsuits against Anthropic that are still ongoing.
Anthropic's $1.5b copyright lawsuit settlement approved
A US judge has signed off on artificial intelligence company Anthropic's landmark $US1.5 billion settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by a group of authors who accused it of misusing their books to train its AI chatbot Claude. US District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin granted final approval of the settlement, the largest known settlement of a US copyright case, rejecting arguments that it was too small. The case is one of dozens brought by copyright owners including authors and news outlets against tech companies over the training of their large language models, and the first major US case to settle. "We reached this settlement in 2025, after the court's landmark ruling that training AI on books is fair use under copyright law - which remains the law today," Anthropic deputy general counsel Aparna Sridhar said in a statement. "We are pleased that more than 91 per cent of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment, and we're looking forward to bringing this matter to a close." The authors' lead lawyer, Justin Nelson, welcomed what he called a "historic settlement." "It is the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible," Nelson said in a statement, referring to payments to authors covered by the settlement. The writers sued Anthropic in 2024, arguing the company, which is backed by Amazon and Alphabet, used pirated versions of their books without permission to teach Claude to respond to human prompts. Alsup ruled last June that Anthropic made fair use of the authors' work to train Claude, but found the company violated their rights by saving more than seven million pirated books to a "central library" that would not necessarily be used for AI training. A trial was scheduled to begin last December to determine how much Anthropic owed for the alleged piracy, with potential damages running into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The settlement spurred objections from some authors who argued it was not large enough, overcompensated the plaintiffs' attorneys or wrongly excluded some copyright owners. Judge Martinez-Olguin overruled those objections in her ruling on Monday. The judge said complaints about the settlement's size were "not grounded in a realistic assessment of the overall risks and rewards of a trial," and awarded the lawyers more than $US101 million of the $US187.5 million they requested in fees. Some authors and publishers opted out of the settlement and have filed separate lawsuits against Anthropic that are still ongoing.
Elon Musk's SpaceX announces Q2 earnings date amid 45pc stock price slump
The earnings release coincides with the first insider share unlock, potentially increasing selling pressure despite Starlink's strong subscriber growth. NEW YORK, July 21 -- SpaceX will release its first quarterly earnings report as a publicly traded company on August 4, the rocket and AI giant said Monday on its investor relations website. The Elon Musk-led company, which trades under the ticker SPCX on the Nasdaq exchange, is scheduled to report results after markets close that day, at 2130 GMT. The figures will cover the second quarter, which ended June 30. The announcement comes as shares in the company have fallen well below their initial public offering price. SpaceX went public on June 12 at US$135 (RM552) a share, with the stock later soaring as high as US$225.64 and pushing the company's valuation above US$2.6 trillion. Shares have since tumbled, closing at US$119.85 on Monday - more than 45 per cent below their post-IPO peak. The company, which reported a loss of US$4.3 billion last year in its IPO filings, has a long-term goal of developing data centres in space. Analysts do not expect profitability anytime soon. SpaceX now operates three divisions: a launch and space unit, the Starlink satellite internet service, and an artificial intelligence arm that includes the Grok chatbot and social media platform X. Starlink, the company's only consistently profitable business, had 10.3 million subscribers as of the first quarter, with revenue up about 50 per cent year-on-year, according to SpaceX's IPO filing. The AI division, weighed down by heavy data centre spending, posted steep losses last year. Crucially, the earnings report will also trigger the first scheduled unlock of insider shares, freeing up stock that has been restricted from sale since the IPO. That could add further pressure on the price if shareholders decide to sell. -- AFP
SpaceX almost halves in value from its much-vaunted June launch
When SpaceX went public last month, it immediately became one of the most valuable companies on Earth, and turned its CEO Elon Musk into the world's first trillionaire. But in the six weeks since, it has been a stunning drop for the space company, with its value nearly halving from its first days on sale. When it first hit the market, SpaceX shares were selling at more than US$201 ($287). Now it's $US119 ($170). The company has now lost a trillion dollars in value in a month, and is now trading well below its initial public offering price. SpaceX derives much of its income from launching satellites into space, but two last-second aborts of its rockets in the past week have given investors the jitters. One of its Falcon 9 rockets aborted a takeoff even as its engines started firing up overnight. And last week, Musk's new-fangled Starship megarocket's launch was aborted. Much of the company's share market value is not tied to its current profitability but its future forecasts. But repeated failures after much hype has given investors cold feet, and many are starting to wonder why they put so much money in a company that still isn't profitable. For many traders, it represents a colossal loss of money. Among early investors is Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart, who reportedly sunk a billion US dollars in the company. It is not known if she sold her shares before SpaceX's precipitous fall. Musk meanwhile has been busy tweeting on X, promoting his AI program Grok, posting conservative opinions and reposting memes. SpaceX isn't the only tech company to have a bad run on the stock market. Last week the release of a new Chinese AI model rattled the big tech companies in the US. Kimi K3 from Moonshot AI appeared to outperform nearly all its rivals, triggering selloffs on Wall Street. And the Australian share market hasn't been immune, opening on Tuesday to a sharp drop.
US judge approves Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement of copyright lawsuit
July 20 (Reuters) - A federal judge in San Francisco on Monday signed off on artificial intelligence company Anthropic's landmark $1.5 billion settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by a group of authors who accused it of misusing their books to train its AI chatbot Claude. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin granted final approval of the settlement, the largest known settlement of a U.S. copyright case, rejecting arguments that it was too small. The case is one of dozens brought by copyright owners including authors and news outlets against tech companies over the training of their large language models, and the first major U.S. case to settle. Now-retired Judge William Alsup initially approved the deal last September. "We reached this settlement in 2025, after the court's landmark ruling that training AI on books is fair use under copyright law -- which remains the law today," Anthropic deputy general counsel Aparna Sridhar said in a statement. "We are pleased that more than 91% of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment, and we're looking forward to bringing this matter to a close." The authors' lead attorney, Justin Nelson, welcomed what he called a "historic settlement." "It is the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible," Nelson said in a statement, referring to payments to authors covered by the settlement. The writers sued Anthropic in 2024, arguing that the company, which is backed by Amazon and Alphabet , used pirated versions of their books without permission to teach Claude to respond to human prompts. Alsup ruled last June that Anthropic made fair use of the authors' work to train Claude, but found that the company violated their rights by saving more than 7 million pirated books to a "central library" that would not necessarily be used for AI training. A trial was scheduled to begin last December to determine how much Anthropic owed for the alleged piracy, with potential damages running into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The settlement spurred objections from some authors who argued it was not large enough, overcompensated the plaintiffs' attorneys or wrongly excluded some copyright owners. Judge Martinez-Olguin overruled those objections in her ruling on Monday. The judge said that complaints about the settlement's size were "not grounded in a realistic assessment of the overall risks and rewards of a trial," and awarded the attorneys more than $101 million of the $187.5 million they requested in fees. Some authors and publishers opted out of the settlement and have filed separate lawsuits against Anthropic that are still ongoing. (Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Sanjeev Miglani and Stephen Coates)
SpaceX to report first earnings as public company on Aug 4 | New Straits Times
NEW YORK: SpaceX will release its first quarterly earnings report as a publicly traded company on Aug 4, the rocket and artificial intelligence (AI) giant said Monday on its investor relations website. The Elon Musk-led company, which trades under the ticker SPCX on the Nasdaq exchange, is scheduled to report results after markets close that day, at 2130 GMT. The figures will cover the second quarter, which ended June 30. The announcement comes as shares in the company have fallen well below their initial public offering price. SpaceX went public on June 12 at US$135 a share, with the stock later soaring as high as US$225.64 and pushing the company's valuation above US$2.6 trillion. Shares have since tumbled, closing at US$119.85 on Monday -- more than 45 per cent below their post-initial public offering (IPO) peak. What To Read Next The company, which reported a loss of US$4.3 billion last year in its IPO filings, has a long-term goal of developing data centers in space. Analysts do not expect profitability anytime soon. × 00:01 01:00 Tonton Non Stop, On Top! Player Insights Video- Viewport / Frames- Audio- Buffer Video / Audio- Time- Stream- Player version- Bitmovin PlayerAdaptive Streaming for the WebPlayer: 8.267.0UI: 4.17.0 Show Player Insights Copy link at current time Video Qualityauto Speednormal Audio Track- Audio Qualityauto Subtitlesoff (0) BackReset Font sizedefault Font styledefault Font familydefault Font colordefault Font opacitydefault Character edgedefault Character edge colordefault Background colordefault Background opacitydefault Window colordefault Window opacitydefault SpaceX now operates three divisions: a launch and space unit, the Starlink satellite internet service, and an artificial intelligence arm that includes the Grok chatbot and social media platform X. Starlink, the company's only consistently profitable business, had 10.3 million subscribers as of the first quarter, with revenue up about 50 per cent year-on-year, according to SpaceX's IPO filing. The AI division, weighed down by heavy data center spending, posted steep losses last year. Crucially, the earnings report will also trigger the first scheduled unlock of insider shares, freeing up stock that has been restricted from sale since the IPO. That could add further pressure on the price if shareholders decide to sell.
US judge approves Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement of copyright lawsuit
July 20 (Reuters) - A federal judge in San Francisco on Monday signed off on artificial intelligence company Anthropic's landmark $1.5 billion settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by a group of authors who accused it of misusing their books to train its AI chatbot Claude. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin granted final approval of the settlement, the largest known settlement of a U.S. copyright case, rejecting arguments that it was too small. The case is one of dozens brought by copyright owners including authors and news outlets against tech companies over the training of their large language models, and the first major U.S. case to settle. Now-retired Judge William Alsup initially approved the deal last September. "We reached this settlement in 2025, after the court's landmark ruling that training AI on books is fair use under copyright law -- which remains the law today," Anthropic deputy general counsel Aparna Sridhar said in a statement. "We are pleased that more than 91% of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment, and we're looking forward to bringing this matter to a close." The authors' lead attorney, Justin Nelson, welcomed what he called a "historic settlement." "It is the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible," Nelson said in a statement, referring to payments to authors covered by the settlement. The writers sued Anthropic in 2024, arguing that the company, which is backed by Amazon and Alphabet , used pirated versions of their books without permission to teach Claude to respond to human prompts. Alsup ruled last June that Anthropic made fair use of the authors' work to train Claude, but found that the company violated their rights by saving more than 7 million pirated books to a "central library" that would not necessarily be used for AI training. A trial was scheduled to begin last December to determine how much Anthropic owed for the alleged piracy, with potential damages running into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The settlement spurred objections from some authors who argued it was not large enough, overcompensated the plaintiffs' attorneys or wrongly excluded some copyright owners. Judge Martinez-Olguin overruled those objections in her ruling on Monday. The judge said that complaints about the settlement's size were "not grounded in a realistic assessment of the overall risks and rewards of a trial," and awarded the attorneys more than $101 million of the $187.5 million they requested in fees. Some authors and publishers opted out of the settlement and have filed separate lawsuits against Anthropic that are still ongoing. (Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Sanjeev Miglani and Stephen Coates)
US judge approves Anthropic's US$1.5bil settlement of copyright lawsuit | New Straits Times
SAN FRANCISCO: A federal judge in San Francisco on Monday signed off on artificial intelligence company Anthropic's landmark US$1.5 billion settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by a group of authors who accused it of misusing their books to train its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Claude. US District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin granted final approval of the settlement, the largest known settlement of a US copyright case, rejecting arguments that it was too small. The case is one of dozens brought by copyright owners including authors and news outlets against tech companies over the training of their large language models, and the first major US case to settle. Now-retired Judge William Alsup initially approved the deal last September. "We reached this settlement in 2025, after the court's landmark ruling that training AI on books is fair use under copyright law -- which remains the law today," Anthropic deputy general counsel Aparna Sridhar said in a statement. "We are pleased that more than 91 per cent of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment, and we're looking forward to bringing this matter to a close." The authors' lead attorney, Justin Nelson, welcomed what he called a "historic settlement." What To Read Next "It is the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible," Nelson said in a statement, referring to payments to authors covered by the settlement. × 00:06 01:00 Tonton Non Stop, On Top! Player Insights Video- Viewport / Frames- Audio- Buffer Video / Audio- Time- Stream- Player version- Bitmovin PlayerAdaptive Streaming for the WebPlayer: 8.267.0UI: 4.17.0 Show Player Insights Copy link at current time Video Qualityauto Speednormal Audio Track- Audio Qualityauto Subtitlesoff (0) BackReset Font sizedefault Font styledefault Font familydefault Font colordefault Font opacitydefault Character edgedefault Character edge colordefault Background colordefault Background opacitydefault Window colordefault Window opacitydefault The writers sued Anthropic in 2024, arguing that the company, which is backed by Amazon and Alphabet, used pirated versions of their books without permission to teach Claude to respond to human prompts. Alsup ruled last June that Anthropic made fair use of the authors' work to train Claude, but found that the company violated their rights by saving more than seven million pirated books to a "central library" that would not necessarily be used for AI training. A trial was scheduled to begin last December to determine how much Anthropic owed for the alleged piracy, with potential damages running into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The settlement spurred objections from some authors who argued it was not large enough, overcompensated the plaintiffs' attorneys or wrongly excluded some copyright owners. Judge Martinez-Olguin overruled those objections in her ruling on Monday. The judge said that complaints about the settlement's size were "not grounded in a realistic assessment of the overall risks and rewards of a trial," and awarded the attorneys more than US$101 million of the US$187.5 million they requested in fees. Some authors and publishers opted out of the settlement and have filed separate lawsuits against Anthropic that are still ongoing.
US judge approves Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement of copyright lawsuit
July 20 (Reuters) - A federal judge in San Francisco on Monday signed off on artificial intelligence company Anthropic's landmark $1.5 billion settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by a group of authors who accused it of misusing their books to train its AI chatbot Claude. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin granted final approval of the settlement, the largest known settlement of a U.S. copyright case, rejecting arguments that it was too small. The case is one of dozens brought by copyright owners including authors and news outlets against tech companies over the training of their large language models, and the first major U.S. case to settle. Now-retired Judge William Alsup initially approved the deal last September. "We reached this settlement in 2025, after the court's landmark ruling that training AI on books is fair use under copyright law -- which remains the law today," Anthropic deputy general counsel Aparna Sridhar said in a statement. "We are pleased that more than 91% of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment, and we're looking forward to bringing this matter to a close." The authors' lead attorney, Justin Nelson, welcomed what he called a "historic settlement." "It is the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible," Nelson said in a statement, referring to payments to authors covered by the settlement. The writers sued Anthropic in 2024, arguing that the company, which is backed by Amazon and Alphabet , used pirated versions of their books without permission to teach Claude to respond to human prompts. Alsup ruled last June that Anthropic made fair use of the authors' work to train Claude, but found that the company violated their rights by saving more than 7 million pirated books to a "central library" that would not necessarily be used for AI training. A trial was scheduled to begin last December to determine how much Anthropic owed for the alleged piracy, with potential damages running into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The settlement spurred objections from some authors who argued it was not large enough, overcompensated the plaintiffs' attorneys or wrongly excluded some copyright owners. Judge Martinez-Olguin overruled those objections in her ruling on Monday. The judge said that complaints about the settlement's size were "not grounded in a realistic assessment of the overall risks and rewards of a trial," and awarded the attorneys more than $101 million of the $187.5 million they requested in fees. Some authors and publishers opted out of the settlement and have filed separate lawsuits against Anthropic that are still ongoing. (Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Sanjeev Miglani and Stephen Coates)
Anthropic's landmark $1.5B copyright settlement is approved
Anthropic can finally start cutting checks to a group of authors and book publishers that sued the AI lab over copyright infringement. A federal judge gave final approval Monday of Anthropic's landmark $1.5 billion settlement of a class action copyright lawsuit, Reuters reported. Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a preliminary approval of the settlement last year, after ruling that Anthropic had illegally downloaded and stored millions of copyrighted books. Alsup has since retired and Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin signed off on the settlement on Monday. The payout will deliver $3,000 per work across an estimated 500,000 works, shared among the authors and publishers who hold rights to them. While the settlement is believed to be the largest in the history of U.S. copyright law, many authors and creators still don't view it as a win. That's because of how the legal question was resolved. Alsup sided with Anthropic on the core issue. He ruled that training an AI model on copyrighted text counts as fair use -- a decision widely seen as a turning point for the AI industry. But the ruling didn't excuse how Anthropic obtained the books in the first place. Anthropic had built its training library from two sources: books it purchased and scanned (fine), and books it downloaded from pirate sites like Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror. Alsup found the second method illegal on its own terms and said that piracy question could go to trial; Anthropic agreed to a settlement soon after to avoid a trial and whatever damages a jury might have awarded. While the final approval closes out this case, it doesn't settle the legal question industry-wide because Alsup's ruling was a single district court decision, and Anthropic's decision to settle means the case will never reach an appeals court to become binding precedent. Other judges are still free to reach their own conclusions on their own facts, which is exactly what's playing out elsewhere. There is still a string of copyright lawsuits against companies such as Google, Meta, Midjourney, and OpenAI over whether it's legal to train AI models on copyrighted works. Just last week, a group of publishers and authors, including Hachette, Cengage, Elsevier, author Scott Turow, and S.C.R.I.B.E. filed a class action lawsuit against Google over accusations that the company used their copyrighted works to train its AI platform, Gemini.
Anthropic's landmark $1.5B copyright settlement is approved
Anthropic can finally start cutting checks to a group of authors and book publishers that sued the AI lab over copyright infringement. A federal judge gave final approval Monday of Anthropic's landmark $1.5 billion settlement of a class action copyright lawsuit, Reuters reported. Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a preliminary approval of the settlement last year, after ruling that Anthropic had illegally downloaded and stored millions of copyrighted books. Alsup has since retired and Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin signed off on the settlement on Monday. The payout will deliver $3,000 per work across an estimated 500,000 works, shared among the authors and publishers who hold rights to them. While the settlement is believed to be the largest in the history of U.S. copyright law, many authors and creators still don't view it as a win. That's because of how the legal question was resolved. Alsup sided with Anthropic on the core issue. He ruled that training an AI model on copyrighted text counts as fair use -- a decision widely seen as a turning point for the AI industry. But the ruling didn't excuse how Anthropic obtained the books in the first place. Anthropic had built its training library from two sources: books it purchased and scanned (fine), and books it downloaded from pirate sites like Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror. Alsup found that second method illegal on its own terms and said that piracy question could go to trial; Anthropic agreed to a settlement soon after to avoid a trial and whatever damages a jury might have awarded. While the final approval closes out this case, it doesn't settle the legal question industry-wide because Alsup's ruling was a single district court decision, and Anthropic's decision to settle means the case will never reach an appeals court to become binding precedent. Other judges are still free to reach their own conclusions on their own facts, which is exactly what's playing out elsewhere. There is still a string of copyright lawsuits against companies such as Google, Meta, Midjourney, and OpenAI over whether it's legal to train AI models on copyrighted works. Just last week, a group of publishers and authors, including Hachette, Cengage, Elsevier, author Scott Turow, and S.C.R.I.B.E. filed a class action lawsuit against Google over accusations that the company used their copyrighted works to train its AI platform, Gemini.
Meta Reportedly In Talks With Anthropic Over a $10 Billion AI Deal
Meta is reportedly in talks to lease computing power to Anthropic in a deal worth as much as $10 billion over two years, according to the New York Times. The arrangement would open a new business line for Meta while easing Anthropic's desperate hunt for compute. Inside the Reported Meta and Anthropic Compute Deal Computing power, or compute, refers to the data center capacity used to train and run artificial intelligence models. The Anthropic proposal, first announced in June, would let the startup rent Meta's excess infrastructure rather than build its own facilities. According to the NTY, Anthropic would pay Meta in monthly installments over the two-year period, with an early-exit clause available to either party. The scale still looks modest by industry standards. The proposal runs about a third of the deal Anthropic signed with Elon Musk's SpaceX in May. Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens. Under that agreement, the AI firm pays roughly $1.25 billion monthly, or $45 billion over three years, for computing power. Similar early-exit provisions reportedly applied to that larger contract as well. The talks remain in early stages and may still collapse before closing. Both Anthropic and Meta declined to comment on the reported negotiations. The context explains the urgency. Leading AI companies are racing to secure compute, while Meta, Google, and Microsoft pour hundreds of billions into new data centers worldwide. That construction boom has unsettled Wall Street. Investors increasingly question whether such extraordinary levels of spending can ever be justified by real returns. "Anthropic needs a lot of compute, and Meta has a lot of compute. Anthropic has really good models. Meta, until very recently, didn't have very good models, and now they have, you know, I would say an A-minus to B-tier frontier model," MTS's Theo Jaffee said. Why Would Meta Rent Compute to a Direct Rival For Meta, a potential deal would carry unusual weight. It could create fresh revenue and ease pressure from shareholders skeptical of the company's aggressive infrastructure budget. Mark Zuckerberg has said Meta will spend as much as $145 billion this year, most of it on AI. That figure more than doubles the $72 billion spent the previous year. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights. Doubts about Meta's own models add another layer. The company has admitted it might build more data centers than its AI products currently require. Selling that surplus offers an obvious fix. Zuckerberg hinted on a May investor call that outside firms regularly ask to buy compute at a premium.
SpaceX moves Starship launch attempt to Thursday
SpaceX is targeting Thursday, July 23, for another attempt to launch its Starship rocket, the company said in a statement on Sunday. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk initially posted on X that the next Starship launch would occur on Friday. He later replied to that post, saying, "I mean Thursday," aligning with the company's earlier statement. On July 16, SpaceX's Starship rocket triggered a last-second abort before liftoff for its 13th flight test from Texas, which erased about $100 billion from the company's market value. SpaceX said it has modified Starship's propulsion system to address the engine issue experienced on the previous flight. A launch delay for the $15 billion rocket development program better known for dramatic engineering feats and explosive testing failures is not uncommon. Last Friday, SpaceX said it would attempt the launch on July 20. The company has launched 12 Starship test flights since 2023. On its 13th flight test, Starship will carry 20 Starlink satellites to demonstrate its satellite-dispensing system and the Starlink network's laser communication links, but those satellites will follow the ship's suborbital trajectory and burn up in Earth's atmosphere soon after deployment. In its prospectus, SpaceX said that it aims to launch the first Starlink satellites to orbit on Starship by year's end, followed by routine launches. (Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Sherry Jacob-Phillips) Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect This story was originally published July 19, 2026 at 9:19 PM.
SpaceX moves Starship launch attempt to Thursday
SpaceX is targeting Thursday, July 23, for another attempt to launch its Starship rocket, the company said in a statement on Sunday. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk initially posted on X that the next Starship launch would occur on Friday. He later replied to that post, saying, "I mean Thursday," aligning with the company's earlier statement. On July 16, SpaceX's Starship rocket triggered a last-second abort before liftoff for its 13th flight test from Texas, which erased about $100 billion from the company's market value. SpaceX said it has modified Starship's propulsion system to address the engine issue experienced on the previous flight. A launch delay for the $15 billion rocket development program better known for dramatic engineering feats and explosive testing failures is not uncommon. Last Friday, SpaceX said it would attempt the launch on July 20. The company has launched 12 Starship test flights since 2023. On its 13th flight test, Starship will carry 20 Starlink satellites to demonstrate its satellite-dispensing system and the Starlink network's laser communication links, but those satellites will follow the ship's suborbital trajectory and burn up in Earth's atmosphere soon after deployment. In its prospectus, SpaceX said that it aims to launch the first Starlink satellites to orbit on Starship by year's end, followed by routine launches. (Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Sherry Jacob-Phillips) Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect This story was originally published July 19, 2026 at 7:19 PM.
SpaceX moves Starship launch attempt to Thursday
SpaceX is targeting Thursday, July 23, for another attempt to launch its Starship rocket, the company said in a statement on Sunday. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk initially posted on X that the next Starship launch would occur on Friday. He later replied to that post, saying, "I mean Thursday," aligning with the company's earlier statement. On July 16, SpaceX's Starship rocket triggered a last-second abort before liftoff for its 13th flight test from Texas, which erased about $100 billion from the company's market value. SpaceX said it has modified Starship's propulsion system to address the engine issue experienced on the previous flight. A launch delay for the $15 billion rocket development program better known for dramatic engineering feats and explosive testing failures is not uncommon. Last Friday, SpaceX said it would attempt the launch on July 20. The company has launched 12 Starship test flights since 2023. On its 13th flight test, Starship will carry 20 Starlink satellites to demonstrate its satellite-dispensing system and the Starlink network's laser communication links, but those satellites will follow the ship's suborbital trajectory and burn up in Earth's atmosphere soon after deployment. In its prospectus, SpaceX said that it aims to launch the first Starlink satellites to orbit on Starship by year's end, followed by routine launches. (Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Sherry Jacob-Phillips) Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect This story was originally published July 19, 2026 at 8:19 PM.
SpaceX moves Starship launch attempt to Thursday
July 19 (Reuters) - SpaceX is targeting Thursday, July 23, for another attempt to launch its Starship rocket, the company said in a statement on Sunday. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk initially posted on X that the next Starship launch would occur on Friday. He later replied to that post, saying, "I mean Thursday," aligning with the company's earlier statement. On July 16, SpaceX's Starship rocket triggered a last-second abort before liftoff for its 13th flight test from Texas, which erased about $100 billion from the company's market value. SpaceX said it has modified Starship's propulsion system to address the engine issue experienced on the previous flight. A launch delay for the $15 billion rocket development program better known for dramatic engineering feats and explosive testing failures is not uncommon. Last Friday, SpaceX said it would attempt the launch on July 20. The company has launched 12 Starship test flights since 2023. On its 13th flight test, Starship will carry 20 Starlink satellites to demonstrate its satellite-dispensing system and the Starlink network's laser communication links, but those satellites will follow the ship's suborbital trajectory and burn up in Earth's atmosphere soon after deployment. In its prospectus, SpaceX said that it aims to launch the first Starlink satellites to orbit on Starship by year's end, followed by routine launches. (Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
SpaceX moves Starship launch attempt to Thursday
July 19 (Reuters) - SpaceX is targeting Thursday, July 23, for another attempt to launch its Starship rocket, the company said in a statement on Sunday. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk initially posted on X that the next Starship launch would occur on Friday. He later replied to that post, saying, "I mean Thursday," aligning with the company's earlier statement. On July 16, SpaceX's Starship rocket triggered a last-second abort before liftoff for its 13th flight test from Texas, which erased about $100 billion from the company's market value. SpaceX said it has modified Starship's propulsion system to address the engine issue experienced on the previous flight. A launch delay for the $15 billion rocket development program better known for dramatic engineering feats and explosive testing failures is not uncommon. Last Friday, SpaceX said it would attempt the launch on July 20. The company has launched 12 Starship test flights since 2023. On its 13th flight test, Starship will carry 20 Starlink satellites to demonstrate its satellite-dispensing system and the Starlink network's laser communication links, but those satellites will follow the ship's suborbital trajectory and burn up in Earth's atmosphere soon after deployment. In its prospectus, SpaceX said that it aims to launch the first Starlink satellites to orbit on Starship by year's end, followed by routine launches. (Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)