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Broadcom has announced supporting Anthropic's computing project alongside Apollo and Blackstone. The move is seen as an indirect strategy to stimulate demand for chips. While the transaction is ostensibly an AI computing infrastructure financing arrangement, industry insiders believe the deeper goal is to boost long-term demand for Broadcom's custom AI chips by promoting large-scale AI computing deployments. Such AI computing projects involving private equity capital are emerging as a new financing model connecting chip designers, AI model companies, and data center capital. However, they also carry uncertainties regarding demand forecasts and capital returns. (The Information)
According to CoinDesk, Digital Asset, the blockchain developer behind Canton Network, has announced a $355 million funding round led by a16z crypto, with participation from global institutions including ABN Amro, Apollo Funds, BNP Paribas, Citadel Securities, HSBC, SBI Group, and a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The round exceeded its original target of $300 million, valuing the company at $2 billion. Canton Network is designed specifically for large financial institutions and enables the issuance and trading of tokenized real-world assets—such as bonds, loans, and funds—on a shared ledger, while maintaining privacy and meeting regulatory compliance requirements. In addition to financial support, a16z crypto will provide specialized assistance in development, policy, and research.
According to Odaily, Digital Asset, the developer of the Canton network, has announced the completion of a $355 million equity funding round, led by a16z crypto. Participating investors include subsidiaries of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Apollo Funds, BNP Paribas, Citadel Securities, CME Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, HSBC, S&P Global, SBI Group, SoFi, Tradeweb, and others. The project's primary business is developing the Canton blockchain network designed for institutions. The funds will be used to accelerate partnerships with institutional players, pursue mergers and acquisitions, and participate in related projects. (The Block)
DeFi lending protocol Morpho has announced the completion of a $175 million funding round, led by a16z Crypto, Paradigm, and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Apollo Funds, Circle Ventures, VanEck, and other institutions.The report states that this funding round was priced based on the average price of Morpho tokens over the past month, corresponding to a valuation of approximately $2 billion for the protocol. Morpho allows institutions to customize lending markets and risk parameters on-chain and has already attracted adoption by institutions such as Coinbase, Kraken, Anchorage Digital, and Galaxy Digital.Data shows that Morpho's current Total Value Locked (TVL) is approximately $6.6 billion. The company stated that it will continue to expand its institutional-grade DeFi lending business and strengthen competition with lending protocols like Aave. (Fortune)
According to Bloomberg, Apollo Global Management and Blackstone Group have finalized a total $35 billion financing arrangement for Anthropic to support its expansion of AI infrastructure.
private equity giants Apollo Global Management and Blackstone Group are bringing in more investors for a debt financing deal worth approximately $36 billion to help Anthropic build its artificial intelligence infrastructure.According to insiders, this debt financing will be used to purchase Google's custom TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) chips, which will then be leased by Anthropic. Broadcom, which assisted Google in developing the chip, will provide guarantees for the majority of this deal. This move is expected to become one of the largest private credit transactions in history and potentially the biggest debt financing deal for chips to date. The plan aims to leverage Broadcom's credit standing to provide computing power support for Anthropic.
Odaily. Bernstein stated in its latest research report that the newly reached compromise on stablecoin yields under the U.S. CLARITY Act is structurally beneficial for Circle and the USDC ecosystem.The report notes that the current version of the bill prohibits stablecoin issuers from paying interest to passive holders that is "economically equivalent" to bank deposits, but allows reward mechanisms tied to actual transaction, payment, and usage activities to continue. Bernstein believes this means Circle's current model, which relies on partners like Coinbase to provide USDC reward programs, will gain regulatory recognition, while also limiting the industry's ability to compete for market share through high yields.Bernstein points out that the bill effectively reinforces the positioning of stablecoins as "payment tools" rather than "deposit substitutes," helping to protect Circle's current business model that relies on reserve income. The firm maintains an "Outperform" rating for Circle with a $190 target price.Data shows that the total global supply of dollar-pegged stablecoins has surpassed $300 billion, with USDT and USDC collectively accounting for approximately 97% of the market share. Bernstein notes that USDC's share in on-chain payments and wallet transfers is steadily increasing, and its share of payments in the AI Agent payment protocol x402 has exceeded 99%.Additionally, Bernstein mentioned that Circle's ARC chain has cumulatively completed 244 million testnet transactions. The ARC token pre-sale previously raised $222 million, with investors including a16z crypto, Apollo Funds, ARK Invest, and BlackRock.However, the report also points out that the CLARITY Act still needs to complete multiple legislative procedures before it takes effect, including a 60-vote threshold in the full Senate and coordination with the House version. Polymarket currently estimates its probability of passage by 2026 at approximately 62%. (The Block)
According to @cryptounfolded, Circle has completed the Arc token presale, raising $222 million with a fully diluted valuation of $3 billion. The round was led by a16z, with participation from major institutions including BlackRock and Apollo. Arc is positioned as a public blockchain for institutional contracts, governance, and AI agents, using USDC as its underlying settlement currency. Circle will receive 25% of the tokens for validator rewards.
Odaily News Securitize announced the appointment of investor, Blackstone advisor, and former International Monetary Fund (IMF) board member Sunil Sabharwal to its board. Sunil Sabharwal served as the U.S. representative to the IMF, confirmed by the U.S. Senate, from 2016 to 2018, for which he received the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Distinguished Service Award. He currently serves on the boards of Thunes and TookiTaki, and previously served as Chairman of payment companies Earthport and Ogone, which were acquired by Visa and Ingenico, respectively. Since 2021, he has served as an advisor and operating partner for the Blackstone Growth Equity Fund.Securitize currently manages over $4 billion in on-chain assets, including the BlackRock BUIDL Fund and tokenized products from institutions such as Apollo, BNY, Hamilton Lane, KKR, and VanEck. The company reached an acquisition agreement with a Cantor Fitzgerald affiliate last October, valuing Securitize at $1 billion. The merged company is set to list on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol CEPT.
According to Bloomberg, chip startup SiFive has raised $400 million in funding, led by Atreides Management, with participation from Nvidia, Apollo Global Management, and Point72. Following this round, SiFive’s valuation stands at $3.65 billion. SiFive stated that the funds will be used to expand its market share in the AI data center sector. This round was oversubscribed, with investment commitments exceeding the final amount raised.