Meta Platforms price target raised to $750 from $650 at Morgan Stanley
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Business Insider
23 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Anthropic's $150 Billion Goal: How Amazon and Alphabet Could Benefit From the AI Surge
Artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic is in early talks to raise between $3 billion and $5 billion in a new funding round. The raise could push the company's valuation above $150 billion, according to the Financial Times. That would more than double its current $61.5 billion valuation, reached just a few months ago. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Anthropic Is Growing Fast Anthropic is the company behind Claude, a large language model that competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT. It is backed by Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), which have each committed billions in cloud credits and cash. Amazon has already invested up to $8 billion and is reportedly considering further investments to remain among Anthropic's largest shareholders. This funding round comes as competition in artificial intelligence intensifies. OpenAI is preparing to launch GPT-5 and is working with SoftBank (SFTBY) on a separate raise that could bring in tens of billions of dollars. Meanwhile, Anthropic has quietly increased its annualized recurring revenue from $1 billion at the start of the year to over $4 billion, driven mainly by enterprise subscriptions. Investors are closely watching the private AI space, but the real implications may lie with public companies that stand to benefit. Amazon and Alphabet have positioned themselves as infrastructure providers for leading model developers, such as Anthropic. A stronger Claude model, used widely in enterprise software and coding tools, could support growth in Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud revenue. The Middle East Is Calling The funding talks have also drawn interest from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. Anthropic's leadership has expressed concerns internally about taking direct investment from the region, citing political risks. Even so, the company sold $500 million worth of shares to a fund linked to Abu Dhabi in 2023. A broader shift toward sovereign capital could influence how other private AI start-ups raise money. Anthropic remains private for now, but its valuation jump and enterprise growth highlight how quickly the AI market is scaling. Investors seeking exposure are most likely to find it through public companies that enable and support that growth. Using TipRanks' Comparison Tool, we've brought Amazon and Google side by side and compared them to gain a broader look at Anthropic's two most notable backers.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Prediction: This Unstoppable Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Will Join Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet in the $2 Trillion Club by Year's End
Key Points The $2 trillion club is full of businesses benefitting from the growing demand for artificial intelligence. The company I'm eyeing is developing its own AI capabilities that serve multiple cases across its business with huge revenue opportunities. The stock trades for a fair value, and even slight outperformance could push it into $2 trillion territory. 10 stocks we like better than Meta Platforms › Nvidia recently became the first ever $4 trillion company in the world. Its rapid ascension in value stems from growing demand for artificial intelligence. But Nvidia isn't the only company that's seen its market value soar to multitrillion-dollar levels on the back of AI-fueled growth. The three biggest cloud computing providers -- Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet -- all boast market caps above $2 trillion. Meanwhile, Apple remains one of the most valuable companies in the world as it works to catch up on its AI capabilities. But the $2 trillion club may be about to get a little bigger. One company is showing strong financial results stemming from the rapid advancements of artificial intelligence over the last few years. In fact, I predict it will surpass the $2 trillion market cap milestone before the end of the year. Here's the AI giant that could join the $2 trillion club. One of the biggest beneficiaries of generative AI capabilities I predict that the next member of the $2 trillion club will be Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META). Not only does it already have a market cap of roughly $1.8 trillion as of this writing on July 24 -- which puts it about 11% from $2 trillion -- but the stock currently looks undervalued relative to the potential opportunities. AI could boost its revenue in the near term while opening up even bigger opportunities in the long run. During Meta's first-quarter earnings call on April 30, CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out five major opportunities for the company with AI. Improved advertising: Meta has long used machine learning algorithms to help surface advertisements amid organic content to drive maximum engagement. That's led to steady improvements in ad pricing for the company. It's also rolled out generative AI tools that help marketers come up with creatives (ads). In the pipeline, Meta's developing an AI agent that can take a marketer's objective and budget and create and run the entire campaign for them. That has the potential to save marketers money and increase the total number of companies running ads on Meta's properties, further pushing ad prices higher. More engaging experiences: Zuckerberg details two benefits of AI: better recommendations and new types of content. Meta has expanded its AI model to include more data points across all different types of content to improve recommendations across every surface of its apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. As it grows the model bigger and bigger, it's getting better and better at engaging users. That's only possible because it now has the compute power to support its large language model development. Zuckerberg also expects generative AI tools to provide new ways for creators to produce better content for users. Everything from existing content like photos and videos can be manipulated with AI, and generative AI could enable creators to produce more interactive content as well. Business messaging: Meta's WhatsApp for Business is a relatively small source of income right now. But as Meta improves its AI agent capabilities, it reduces the cost for businesses to provide customer service and sales through WhatsApp and Messenger. That could lead to a surge in WhatsApp for Business users. One analyst thinks AI agents alone are a $100 billion opportunity for Meta. A stand-alone AI chatbot: Meta has integrated the Meta AI assistant into all of its main apps and released a stand-alone version of the app as well. As the user base grows, it could provide another source of valuable advertising inventory. Importantly, since Meta is developing its own large language model for the above applications already, the additional cost of building and running a stand-alone AI chatbot is far lower than for dedicated AI companies like OpenAI or Anthropic. Devices: Zuckerberg points out the growing popularity of Meta's AI glasses. Unit sales tripled in the first quarter. Longer term, generative AI may be essential for creating an augmented reality user interface that fits into the unique setting of each user. Indeed, AI has the potential to dramatically impact Meta's financials in a positive direction in the near term while supporting its long-term objectives in virtual and augmented reality. The stock looks like a bargain right now The above factors should be able to generate strong double-digit revenue growth for Meta for years to come. The company saw 16% revenue growth last quarter, while exhibiting nice operating leverage. As a result, operating income climbed 27% year over year. The big step up in capital expenditures could weigh on earnings growth for the next couple of years as depreciation expense climbs as a result. But as the company grows into those expenses, it should continue to show operating leverage. Meta's also using excess cash flow to repurchase shares. It bought back $13.4 billion worth of its stock in the first quarter, and it still has $70 billion in cash on the balance sheet. As a result, the company should be able to generate strong earnings-per-share growth. As of this writing, the stock trades for 28 times earnings. Considering the growth potential ahead for the stock, that's an enticing price for investors. To push the stock to $2 trillion, it would have to trade for closer to 31 times earnings, which isn't an unreasonable multiple for the stock. But if Meta ends up outperforming expectations, it could trade for the same multiple and still achieve a $2 trillion valuation. I expect a combination of multiple expansion and outperformance to drive the stock to $2 trillion before the end of the year. Should you buy stock in Meta Platforms right now? Before you buy stock in Meta Platforms, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Meta Platforms wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,063,471!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025 Adam Levy has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Prediction: This Unstoppable Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Will Join Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet in the $2 Trillion Club by Year's End was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Amazon Warns Attacks Underway—Update Your Account Now
Don't leave it too late — update now. Amazon has confirmed its users are now under attack. Fraudulent emails that seem to come from Amazon actually open 'a fake Amazon login page.' This steals your username and password, enabling attackers to gain access to your account. Those emails, Amazon warns, claim 'Amazon Prime subscriptions will automatically renew at an unexpected price,' and have been personalized with stolen data 'to appear legitimate.' The warning was issued to more than 200 million customers. If that's not worrying enough, the security at team at Guardio has also just warned that a separate attack is also surging — up 5000% in just two weeks. This time its texts instead of emails, and fake refunds instead of fake price increases. But the result is the same — a fake login page stealing your credentials to access your account. Amazon says it has taken down '55,000 phishing websites and 12,000 phone numbers' in the last year, 'as part of impersonation schemes.' But still the attacks come. Amazon has now issued '6 practical tips to help you stay safe and avoid impersonation scams.' America's FTC warns 'scammers are pretending to be Amazon again. This time, they're sending texts claiming there's a problem with something you bought.' But there is no refund. 'Instead, it's a phishing scam to steal your money or personal information.' Amazon is keen to stress that it invests heavily to prevent users falling victim to these attacks. Its responsiveness to these latest attacks is impressive. But the reality is that the only way for account holders to stay safe is to update the security on their accounts. You should do two things to secure your account and you should do both today. First, ensure you have 'two-step verification (2SV)' enabled from within the 'Login & Security' settings, which you can find when you click on 'Accounts & Lists.' The default option is to use your primary mobile number to send one-time passcodes by SMS. This is the worst form of 2SV. Instead you should use an authenticator app from a major provider — Apple's Passwords or Google's Authenticator for example. If you already have SMS 2SV enabled, 'you'll need to clear your two-step verification settings' to use an app instead. 'To do so, tap or click disable, then tick the box next to 'Also clear my two-step verification settings' on the window that appears. Lastly, re-enable two-step verification using your authenticator app as your preferred method.' With that done, your account is much safer. But there's still a chance an attacker can trick you into sharing a one-time passcode through a fraudulent sign-in page. So you should also add a passkey to your account and use that as your default. Passkeys are 'phishing resistant.' They link your Amazon sign-in to your physical device's security — for example, the biometrics or PIN on your phone. There is no 2SV code to steal or bypass or trick a user into sharing. You can find instructions on adding an Amazon passkey here. If you make these changes, it's not possible for an attacker to steal your username and password and gain access to your account. At a minimum they would need you to open your authenticator app and share the code. They will not know you're using an app. Passkeys are still better. And if you make a rule to never use anything but your passkey on one of your trusted devices, you cannot be compromised. Change those settings today, given that attacks are underway. Don't leave it too late.
