A federal judge used the term "Orwellian" to block the Pentagon's supply chain risk designation for Anthropic. Huawei's AI chips receive first orders from ByteDance and Alibaba, while SMIC's supplies to Iran are exposed.
1| Judge Halts Pentagon's Retaliation Against Anthropic, New Model Leak and IPO Plans Exposed Same Day
California federal judge Rita Lin ruled on Thursday to suspend the Pentagon's decision to label Anthropic as a "supply chain risk." The ruling stated that the Pentagon's reason for the label was Anthropic "expressing hostility through the media." Judge Lin characterized this logic as "Orwellian," labeling a U.S. company as an adversary due to dissent.
The conflict began when Anthropic refused to use Claude for autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance. The Pentagon subsequently invoked military powers typically used against foreign hostile forces, ordering all federal agencies to stop using Claude. The court's position was straightforward: an AI company suffering political retaliation for saying "no" is legally untenable.
On the same day, Fortune discovered an Anthropic CMS misconfiguration that exposed a new model codenamed Mythos, which Anthropic confirmed represents a "step-function increase in capabilities." Bloomberg reported that Anthropic is discussing an IPO as early as October, with a valuation of $380 billion. The court blocked political retaliation while the market simultaneously saw technological leaps and signals for a public listing.
(Sources: Fortune / Bloomberg / The Information / The Verge / CNBC / U.S. Federal Court)
2| Huawei's Ascend 950PR Secures Orders from ByteDance and Alibaba, SMIC's Chip Supplies to Iranian Military Exposed
Reuters exclusively reported on Thursday that Huawei's new AI chip, the Ascend 950PR, performed well in customer tests, with ByteDance and Alibaba planning to place orders. Its computing power reaches 1.56 petaflops (FP4), double that of Nvidia's China-specific H20. Huawei plans to ship about 750,000 units this year, with mass production starting by the end of April.
Another Reuters exclusive on the same day stated that U.S. officials indicated SMIC began providing chip manufacturing equipment and technical training to the Iranian military about a year ago. These two threads intersect with the morning report's chip smuggling case, showing the U.S. export control system loosening at both ends: on one end, Chinese alternative chips are reaching practical thresholds, and on the other, sanctioned targets are forming a mutual technical assistance network.
NeurIPS 2026 for the first time linked paper submissions to U.S. sanctions. The China Computer Federation called for a boycott, and senior researchers from Alibaba and Tencent publicly resigned from their conference positions. Decoupling is penetrating the most fundamental layers of technical exchange.
(Sources: Reuters / CNBC / SCMP / China Computer Federation)
3| Pentagon Considers Deploying 10,000 Additional Troops to the Middle East, Vance Appointed Chief Negotiator for Iran Talks
Axios reported that the White House and Pentagon are considering deploying at least 10,000 additional ground combat troops to the Middle East, joining the already deployed 5,000 Marines and 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers. The likely deployment location is within the strike range of Iran and Kharg Island. Kharg Island handles 90% of Iran's oil exports, which Trump called Iran's "crown jewel."
The troop increase and negotiation window are advancing simultaneously. Trump announced on Thursday an extension of the deadline to strike Iranian energy facilities by 10 days to April 6. Signals from Tehran indicated a preference not to negotiate with Vitekoff and Kushnar but rather with Vance. Trump officially confirmed Vance as the chief negotiator during Thursday's cabinet meeting.
The troop increase and deadline extension, while seemingly contradictory, are logically consistent. The deployment of 10,000 troops prepares militarily for seizing the island, while the negotiation window gives Iran a final chance to concede. Vance taking over the negotiations is itself a concession signal, as he is the most skeptical cabinet member regarding this war. (Continuing the morning report)
(Sources: Axios / Stars and Stripes / NPR / Pentagon)
4| OpenAI's Ad Pilot Reaches $100 Million Annualized in Six Weeks, But Enterprise Clients Are Accelerating Their Departure
OpenAI's ChatGPT ad pilot, launched in the U.S. just six weeks ago, has already reached an annualized revenue of over $100 million. More than 600 advertisers have joined, and about 85% of free users can see ads, but the actual daily active user reach is less than 20%. OpenAI is testing expansion into Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
While the consumer side is accelerating monetization, the enterprise trend is截然不同 (completely different). The probability of enterprise clients choosing Anthropic over OpenAI for their first AI purchase is three times higher, and OpenAI's enterprise market share has dropped from 50% to 27%. Altman issued an internal "Code Red" alert late last year, planning to expand to 8,000 employees by year-end, cutting side projects to focus on coding and enterprise products.
The $100 million ad revenue proves the monetization pathway for free user traffic is clear. But enterprise clients care about security, controllability, and customization, not brand awareness—precisely the strengths of today's other主角 (protagonist), Anthropic. The divergence of the two AI business models became格外清晰 (exceptionally clear) in a single day.
(Sources: Reuters / The Information / CNBC)
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Dow Chemical CEO warns that petrochemical shortages caused by the Iran war could last throughout the year. About 50% of global polyethylene supply is constrained or offline, with Asian naphtha cracking margins surging from $108/ton pre-conflict to over $400. Dow estimates it could take 275 days to解除瓶颈 (resolve the bottlenecks). (Source: Fortune / Dow Chemical)
Moonshot AI seeks Hong Kong IPO amid tightening regulations. This would be the first IPO case among Chinese AI large model startups. Anthropic also传出 (reportedly) IPO news on the same day, with Chinese and U.S. AI unicorns simultaneously冲击 (impacting) public markets. (Source: WSJ)
Tether hires KPMG to audit USDT reserves, brings in PwC for consulting, paving the way for U.S. market expansion. Stablecoin legislation advancement is accelerating the compliance countdown. (Source: CoinDesk)
Bitcoin falls to a two-week low, below $68,000, with $300 million in long positions liquidated. Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of $171 million in a single day, the largest in three weeks. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield approaches a one-year high of 4.5%. (Source: CoinDesk / Bloomberg)
Tencent Cloud unveils its first Agent product panorama, upgrading its MaaS platform to TokenHub. It covers five dimensions: infrastructure, model ecosystem, application scenarios, and security, opening up WeChat and Enterprise WeChat skill ecosystems. (Source: 36Kr)
