01 / AI / MARKETS
Anthropic Opens Its Books
Anthropic filed to list on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT on October 26. It could become the first company focused mainly on frontier AI models to trade on a public market. 1
Revenue reached $16.3 billion in the first half of 2026, up from $1.2 billion a year earlier. Its operating loss narrowed from $2.1 billion to $693 million, even as compute and infrastructure costs rose to $8.9 billion. 1
The headline net loss was $80.7 billion, but $72.4 billion came from accounting changes tied mainly to convertible debt as Anthropic's valuation rose. It was not money the company spent during those six months. 1
The filing also shows the scale of the next build-out. Anthropic estimates another $125 billion to $150 billion in future payments for additional computing capacity between 2028 and 2031. 1
Why it matters
This is the clearest public view yet of the frontier-model business. Anthropic is growing at extraordinary speed, but that growth depends on computing commitments that reach far into the next decade.
Reality check
The filing does not yet include the share price, the number of shares or the amount Anthropic will raise. Its founders also plan to keep 50.1% of the voting power through a special class of stock, so public shareholders would not control the company. 1
02 / SPACE
Japan Launches for Phobos
Japan launched its Martian Moons eXploration mission on October 19. The spacecraft is now travelling toward Phobos, the larger of Mars' two small moons. 3
MMX is scheduled to reach Mars in 2027, release a German-French rover and land twice on Phobos. It will try to collect at least ten grams of soil and return the samples to Earth in 2031. 4
The material could settle a long-running question: whether Phobos is a captured asteroid or debris left behind by a major impact on Mars. It may also preserve clues about how water and organic material moved through the early Solar System. 3
Why it matters
No mission has returned material from Mars or either of its moons. If MMX succeeds, laboratories on Earth will be able to study part of the Martian system directly instead of relying only on images and measurements from space.
Reality check
The successful launch was only the first step of a five-year mission. MMX still has to enter Mars orbit, work around a moon with extremely weak gravity, land, collect material and bring a capsule safely back to Earth.
03 / BIOTECH
A Cancer Treatment That May Spare Surgery
The FDA approved dostarlimab for adults with a particular form of stage II or III rectal cancer on October 19. The immunotherapy is sold as Jemperli and is intended for tumors with a specific defect in how they repair DNA. 5
Of 154 patients treated in the study, 110 received only dostarlimab, needed no surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, and showed no disease progression by the data cutoff. 5
Rectal-cancer treatment can permanently affect bowel, urinary and sexual function. Avoiding those treatments could therefore change life after cancer, not only whether a patient survives it. 6
Why it matters
This is an approved treatment, not an early laboratory result. For a small group of patients, a drug may now replace a combination of treatments that can carry lasting physical consequences.
Reality check
The approval is accelerated and based on an ongoing study without a separate control group. It applies only to tumors with the relevant biomarker, and longer follow-up is needed to show how often the cancer returns.
04 / BCI
Unresponsive Patients Control a Sound
Researchers tested a bedside brain-computer interface with 41 intensive-care patients who showed no outward response after a severe brain injury. Standard EEG sensors read their brain activity while they imagined opening and closing one hand to make a tone speed up or slow down. 7
Thirteen patients, or 32%, managed to control the tone. Six of those 13 later regained enough independence to function on their own for at least part of the day, compared with two of the 28 patients who could not control it. 7
The system requires no implant and uses equipment already common in intensive care. The researchers now want to turn the one-way signal into simple communication, such as answering yes or no or indicating pain. 8
Why it matters
A patient can understand a command without being able to move or speak. Giving that person a way to produce a measurable response could help doctors detect awareness that a normal bedside examination misses.
Reality check
This was a small study at one hospital, and controlling the tone took about 50 seconds on average. The link with later recovery does not show that the interface caused the improvement, and failing the task does not prove that a patient is unaware.