AI Daily: Microsoft scaling down AI chip ambitions

Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly:

AI CHIP AMBITIONS: Microsoft (MSFT) is scaling back its roadmap for its internally developed AI server chips in an effort to overcome delays, The Information’s Wayne Ma reports.

POACHING EFFORTS: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a memo to staff that “missionaries will beat mercenaries” and “I believe there is much, much more upside to OpenAI stock than Meta stock,” Wired’s Zoe Schiffer reports. “What Meta is doing will, in my opinion, lead to very deep cultural problems,” said CEO Sam Altman in a leaked memo sent to OpenAI researchers. Altman was responding to Meta’s (META) offers to poach employees, successfully recruiting several senior researchers from OpenAI to join Meta’s superintelligence lab.

AI RESEARCH TALENT: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has, on more than 10 occasions, offered to pay AI research talent up to $300M over four years, with over $100M in compensation for the first year, Wired’s Zoe Schiffer reports. The Meta CEO is leading a hiring blitz, offering top talent at OpenAI major pay packages and endless access to cutting-edge chips, Schiffer notes.

REVENUE: Anthropic’s revenue has hit $4B annual pace as competition with Cursor intensifies, The Information’s Natasha Mascarenhas and Stephanie Palazzolo report. Anysphere, the maker of Cursor, an artificial intelligence-powered coding app, has hired two leaders of Anthropic’s competing coding product, Claude Code, according to one of the leaders. The move is notable because Cursor relies on AI from Anthropic to power its app and is one of Anthropic’s biggest customers.