Today’s AI Tech News Digest: Anthropic’s Record Funding and Spreading Market Disruption

Date: February 13, 2026

The artificial intelligence landscape continues to reshape global markets at an unprecedented pace. Today’s digest covers a historic $30 billion funding round for Anthropic, spreading disruption across new industry sectors, bold predictions about workforce automation, and strategic developments spanning from space-based AI to European startup accelerators. Here are the ten most important AI-related stories from around the world today.

1. Anthropic Closes Record $30 Billion Funding Round at $380 Billion Valuation

Anthropic has closed a staggering $30 billion funding round at a $380 billion post-money valuation, more than double what the AI company was worth in September. This marks the second-largest private tech fundraising round on record, trailing only OpenAI. The massive capital infusion reflects intensifying competition among frontier AI labs and skyrocketing computing costs as companies race to develop increasingly powerful models .

2. AI Disruption Spreads to Real Estate, Trucking, and Logistics Stocks

The ripple effects of AI anxiety are now hitting new sectors. Real estate, trucking, and logistics stocks joined the growing list of industries plunging on AI fears. Elon Musk recently suggested on a podcast that office towers could soon become empty as AI replaces workers, while OtherSide AI co-founder Matt Shumer argued that AI could eradicate entry-level white-collar jobs. In freight, AI company Algorhythm Holdings released a tool claiming to scale freight volumes by 300% to 400% without additional hiring, sending trucking and logistics stocks plummeting .

3. Apple Suffers Worst Trading Day Since April on Siri AI Delays

Apple shares fell 5% on Thursday, marking their worst session since April 2025. The decline followed reports that the company has internally pushed back the rollout of its long-awaited AI-powered Siri update to May or potentially later, with features now expected to roll out gradually over several months. Regulatory pressure added to the stock’s weakness after FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson asked Apple CEO Tim Cook to review Apple News content curation policies amid allegations of political bias .

4. Microsoft AI Chief Predicts Full Automation Within 12-18 Months

Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, made a bold prediction that “most, if not all, professional tasks” for lawyers, accountants, project managers, and marketing professionals “will be fully automated by AI within the next 12 to 18 months.” Suleyman pointed to software engineering as evidence, noting that many engineers now use AI-assisted coding for the vast majority of their code production. He also revealed that training compute has increased 1 trillion-fold over 15 years, with another 1,000x increase expected in the next three years .

5. Saudi Aramco and Microsoft Partner on AI-Driven Industrial Solutions

Saudi Aramco announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Microsoft to explore AI-driven industrial solutions. The partnership aims to accelerate industrial AI applications, enhance digital capabilities, and strengthen talent development in Saudi Arabia. Aramco plans to leverage Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to develop AI solutions that improve operational efficiency and global competitiveness in the energy sector .

6. Singapore Launches National AI Council in 2026 Budget

Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong made AI the centerpiece of the nation’s 2026 budget announcement. The city-state will launch a “national AI council,” support firms seeking to harness AI, and provide citizens who complete select courses with six months of free access to advanced AI tools. The initiative represents a significant government commitment to positioning Singapore as a global AI hub .

7. Rival AI Labs Unite for European Startup Accelerator

In an unprecedented collaboration, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Mistral have all partnered on F/ai, a new startup accelerator based at Paris’s Station F incubator. The program marks the first time these competing AI labs have participated in a single accelerator. Twenty startups per cohort will receive over $1 million in credits for AI models and computing services, focusing on rapid commercialization to help European AI startups compete globally .

8. Chinese “Three-Body Computing Constellation” Achieves Breakthrough with 10 AI Models

China’s Three-Body Computing Constellation has achieved a major milestone in space-based AI, successfully completing inter-satellite networking and deploying 10 artificial intelligence models for in-orbit validation. The project recently conducted collaborative intelligent processing tests for water environment monitoring, demonstrating full-chain capabilities from satellite payload operation to task result transmission. Applications include deep space exploration, smart city construction, and natural resource surveying .

9. Fed Governor: Policy Adjustments and AI to Boost U.S. GDP Growth

Federal Reserve Governor Michele Bowman stated that policy adjustments and artificial intelligence will drive U.S. GDP growth, according to reports from Chinese financial media. The comments suggest growing recognition at the highest levels of economic policy that AI adoption could have measurable macroeconomic impacts in the coming years .

10. Entrepreneur Warns AI Impact Will Surpass COVID-19

Matt Shumer, CEO of OtherSide AI, published a viral essay warning that AI’s societal impact will be more dramatic than the COVID-19 pandemic. The post garnered over 50 million views within 24 hours, sparking intense debate across tech and industry circles. Shumer highlighted that new AI models now possess unprecedented “judgment” and “taste,” capable of autonomously writing code, testing applications, and iterating until satisfied. He warned that 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs could disappear within one to five years, and urged professionals to immediately begin actively working with AI tools to avoid being left behind .

Additional Notable Developments

• Siemens raised its fiscal year 2026 earnings outlook, with CEO Roland Busch telling CNBC that “the impact in the real world, so in industrial manufacturing, designing of products or looking in the operations using AI will come faster than we expect” .

• SoftBank added $4.2 billion in value to its OpenAI investment, boosting its Vision Fund by $2.4 billion in the December quarter .

• China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published 162 proposed industry standards for public comment, including specifications for “Artificial Intelligence Key Foundational Technologies — Office Intelligent Agent Application Interfaces” .

• Applied Materials introduced new deposition, etching, and material modification systems to enable faster AI chips through 2-nanometer and advanced process node logic chips .