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Anthropic's Stripe challenge, Instinct's compute crunch and Shield AI eyes $20B: latest startup news
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September 27, 2026 Startup News The deals and valuations shaping startups From Anthropic’s payments push that could chip away at Stripe to Instinct’s compute crunch and Shield AI’s $20 billion ambitions, this month’s top startup stories show companies outgrowing their suppliers, servers and last funding rounds. At The Information, we help you find tomorrow’s winners first. Subscribe for $299 and save 25% on the first year. Key highlights: Anthropic’s in-house payments push could chip away at Stripe. Personal AI app Instinct is hitting capacity limits as it seeks $1 billion more. Shield AI is in talks at a $20 billion-plus valuation, up about 60% in five months. The Anthropic IPO Countdown Inside tech’s most anticipated listing Sunday Insights How Anthropic Clinched $517 Billion in Compute Deals in 11 Months By Valida Pau Exclusive Anthropic IPO Waiting Game Puts Wall Street on Edge By Cory Weinberg Breakouts & Growing Pains When hypergrowth hits its limits Exclusive Anthropic’s In-House Payments Tech Push Could Chip Away at Stripe By Stephanie Palazzolo Exclusive Personal AI App Instinct Faces Compute Crunch That Could Lead to New Funding By Stephanie Palazzolo and Valida Pau Exclusive How Erebor Bank’s Sweet Stablecoin Deal Backfired By Michael Roddan and Yueqi Yang Exclusive Jeffrey Katzenberg Teams Up with Former OpenAI Sora Head on New AI Video Startup By Cory Weinberg and Stephanie Palazzolo Funding, Valuations & VC Bets Where the biggest checks are landing How Andreessen Horowitz Turned Its AI Bets Into an $8 Billion Bonanza By Julia Hornstein and Kevin McLaughlin Exclusive Defense Startup Shield AI in Talks for Valuation of at Least $20 Billion By Julia Hornstein and Jemima McEvoy Exclusive Nvidia in Talks to Invest Around $2.5 Billion in Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab By Phoebe Liu, Stephanie Palazzolo, Valida Pau and Julia Hornstein Exclusive China Curbs Humanoid IPOs After Unitree’s Volatile Debut By Jing Yang and Qianer Liu Subscribe for $299 and save 25% on your first year to track the startups, deals and IPOs shaping what’s next, before they become consensus. Subscribe New from The Information Pro AI Inflection Index Flagging emergent terms and investable themes. 77 core AI trends tracked across 10,000 articles, newsletters, and briefings. Gain access to over 60 org charts, Deep Research, proprietary databases, exclusive newsletters, subscriber-only survey results, events, and more by subscribing to The Information Pro. Sign Up for Our Newsletter Every Monday (subscribers only) The Information Finance By The Information Staff Context and explanation for the biggest investments in the industry, with a particular focus on the funding of artificial intelligence. Sign up Follow us Download our app Explore Our Newsletters Subscribe to The Information Sent to you@example.com | Manage your preferences or unsubscribe | Help The Information · 251 Rhode Island Street, Suite 107, San Francisco, CA 94103