In brief: Anthropic reaches a valuation of 1.023 trillion dollars and overtakes OpenAI, while competitors implement massive layoffs. AI expansion is concentrated in hardware and energy, not software—a sign of potential economic overvaluation.
While the industry experiences massive waves of layoffs, Anthropic, following a sensational Q1 with 80x annualized growth, reaches a valuation of 1.023 trillion dollars and ranks ahead of OpenAI. The company is globally ranked 11–15 among the most valuable corporations.
Anthropic stands out distinctly from the competition: while Block cut 40 percent, Coinbase 14 percent, and Cloudflare 20 percent of their workforce—mostly citing the need to prepare for AI—the company continues to expand steadily. Similar expansion trends are also visible among stronger software companies like Linear, which are benefiting from AI.
However, the economic benefit of AI expansion is primarily concentrated in the hardware and energy sectors, while non-AI software areas are contracting. Growing market concentration combined with selective shrinkage across entire industries points to dangerous bubble tendencies. The question remains to what extent companies are genuinely justifying their layoffs with AI adjustments or are merely using them as a pretext.