Anduril Pursues Japan Footprint, OpenAI Rolls Out GPT-5.6, Revolut Business Enters Oceania

Private tech leaders are expanding on multiple fronts. Anduril expands its manufacturing ambitions to Japan, OpenAI begins rolling out GPT-5.6 under U.S. oversight, and Revolut Business enters New Zealand as it grows across Oceania. Let’s dive in…

THIS WEEK’S BREAKING NEWS

Anduril pursues Japan manufacturing footprint and eyes Nissan plant

Anduril is in talks to acquire Nissan’s Oppama assembly plant near Tokyo, potentially turning the historic automotive facility into a military drone manufacturing hub as Japan expands domestic defense production. The 1.7 million-square-meter site, which has produced about 18 million vehicles since 1961, could see its 2,400 workers retrained for defense manufacturing, although no agreement has been reached and Anduril would still need Japanese military orders to justify the investment. (1)

MARKET UPDATE

U.S. IPO market drives record $251B first-half equity issuance

U.S. equity issuance reached a record $251B through June 26, surpassing the previous midyear high set in 2021, driven by SpaceX’s $86.2B IPO and Alphabet’s $85B equity offering. The strong issuance environment included 11 IPOs raising more than $1B, with investment banks expecting another active pipeline of large public listings in the second half of 2026. (2)

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PORTFOLIO NEWS

Anduril's California headquarters listed for potential $400M sale

Anduril’s 634,000-square-foot Costa Mesa headquarters is being marketed for sale in a transaction that could approach $400M, reflecting investor confidence in the defense technology leader rather than the broader office market. Fully leased to Anduril for another 13 years, the property comes as U.S. defense tech funding reaches $11.4B year-to-date and Anduril continues expanding after its $61B valuation and $7.5B capital raise. (3)

Anthropic introduces Claude Tag for Slack workspaces

Anthropic launched Claude Tag, a shared AI teammate for Slack that enables teams to delegate tasks by tagging Claude in channels. Available in beta for Enterprise and Team customers, Claude builds persistent channel context, works asynchronously across hours or days, proactively surfaces updates, and integrates with approved tools and codebases. Anthropic says its internal version now generates 65% of its product team's code. (4)

U.S. partially restores Mythos 5 access to trusted organizations

The Trump administration has authorized Anthropic to restore access to Claude Mythos 5 for more than 100 vetted U.S. organizations, including critical infrastructure operators, cybersecurity firms, large corporations, and government agencies. The decision partially reverses restrictions imposed on June 12 over national security concerns, while Fable 5 remains unavailable for general use as Anthropic continues discussions with the government. (5)

Cursor unveils Cursor Mobile for developer workflows

Cursor launched the Cursor Mobile application enabling developers to create, manage, and interact with AI coding agents directly from their phones. Built on the agent-focused Cursor 2.0 platform introduced in October, the app reflects a broader industry shift toward supervising autonomous coding agents rather than writing code manually, with Anthropic and OpenAI also expanding mobile AI development workflows. (6)

Nokia expands autonomous networking with AWS and Databricks

Nokia expanded its autonomous networking strategy through new collaborations with AWS and Databricks, combining cloud-native AI, unified data platforms, and real-time analytics to help telecommunications operators advance toward Level 4 autonomous networks. The partnerships enable AI-driven network automation, cross-cloud data management, and agentic operations, while Nokia reports customers have achieved automation rates above 90%, an up to 85% reduction in network slice rollout time, and up to 50% fewer customer-impacting incidents. (7)

Databricks introduces AI drug discovery platform with NVIDIA

Databricks and NVIDIA introduced Genesis Workbench, an open, governed life sciences platform that unifies genomics, molecular biology, chemistry, and AI workflows for drug discovery within a customer's Databricks environment. Combining Unity Catalog governance, MLflow, serverless GPU compute, and NVIDIA BioNeMo models, the platform enables secure, GPU-accelerated research while keeping proprietary data inside enterprise infrastructure and eliminating external API dependencies. (8)

Epic Games expands RealityScan with AMD GPU support

Epic Games released RealityScan 2.2, adding native AMD GPU acceleration alongside existing NVIDIA support, allowing creators to combine AMD and NVIDIA GPUs within a single workstation. The update also introduces Pano2Views, a free tool that converts 360-degree camera footage for photogrammetry workflows, expanding hardware flexibility for game development, VFX, visualization, and digital content production. (9)

Kraken brings structured credit onchain through Maple collaboration

Kraken and Maple closed one of the first fully onchain warehouse facilities for digital asset-backed lending, bringing institutional structured credit infrastructure onchain through a bankruptcy-remote SPV. The USDC-denominated facility funds Kraken’s OTC lending program, enabling institutions to access liquidity without selling BTC or ETH, while giving Maple lenders real-time, onchain visibility into collateral and loan performance. (10)

Kraken eyes 15% Aave stake at $385M valuation

Kraken is reportedly in talks to acquire a 15% stake in Aave Group, valuing the company at $385M. The proposed investment would include 35,000 ETH in exchange for 250,000 AAVE tokens and the equity stake, strengthening Kraken's DeFi footprint ahead of a potential IPO. (11)

OpenAI releases GPT-5.6 to vetted U.S. users

OpenAI launched a limited preview of its GPT-5.6 model family, including Sol, Terra, and Luna, to a small group of U.S. government-approved users following a government request. The staged rollout reflects growing oversight of frontier AI with advanced cybersecurity capabilities, while OpenAI says broader access will expand gradually as formal release processes are developed. (12)

OpenAI unveils first custom AI chip with Broadcom

OpenAI and Broadcom unveiled Jalapeño, OpenAI’s first custom AI chip, marking a major step toward building its own AI infrastructure stack. Designed in just nine months, the inference chip will power ChatGPT and other AI services, with initial deployment targeted for late 2026 before scaling through 2027 and 2028 as OpenAI seeks greater compute efficiency and capacity. (13)

HP scales OpenAI Frontier following successful pilots

HP Inc. expanded its strategic partnership with OpenAI by scaling Frontier across the enterprise after successful pilot runs in software development, security, and customer operations. Early deployments helped engineers process 122 pull requests across 43 projects within weeks, while security teams remediated software vulnerabilities in a day instead of up to a month, supporting broader AI adoption across customer, partner, and employee workflows. (14)

Revolut ends remote-first policy for incoming graduate hires

Revolut will require graduates and interns joining in 2027 to work from the office at least three days a week, ending its remote-first policy for junior hires while retaining flexible arrangements for other employees. The fintech, which employs about 11,000 people globally and is hiring more than 300 graduates and interns this year, says increased in-person collaboration will strengthen early-career training and mentoring. (15)

Revolut Business expands into Oceania with New Zealand launch

Revolut launched Revolut Business in New Zealand, expanding its B2B offering across APAC with a digital-first platform for SMEs. The service supports transactions in 39 currencies, integrates with Xero, and streamlines onboarding, payments, and spend management. Globally, Revolut Business serves more than 800,000 businesses with annualized revenue exceeding NZ$1.65B, targeting a banking market where incumbent institutions control over 90% share. (16)

Ripple wins preliminary MiCA approval in Luxembourg

Ripple received preliminary approval for a CASP license from Luxembourg’s CSSF under the EU’s MiCA framework, positioning the company to offer stablecoin payment systems and broader crypto services across the bloc. The approval would allow Ripple to use Luxembourg as its EU regulatory base, as MiCA permits licensed firms in one member state to passport services across the European Union. (17)

SpaceX snaps three-day post-IPO selloff; gains nearly 1%

SpaceX shares closed nearly 1% higher, ending a three-day decline that erased almost 24% of the stock’s value following its blockbuster IPO. The rebound came after the company announced a senior unsecured notes offering, disclosed $100.8B in cash and cash equivalents, and unveiled a computing partnership with AI startup Reflection, helping stabilize investor sentiment. (18)

Stripe, Anthropic, and OpenAI invest $500M in Intercept to combat respiratory infections

Stripe, Anthropic, and the OpenAI Foundation joined a $500M consortium to launch Intercept, an initiative focused on eliminating respiratory infections through new therapeutics and air-cleaning technologies. The program aims to advance vaccines, antiviral drugs, and pathogen-filtering systems while supporting early-stage research before transitioning successful candidates to large pharmaceutical companies for commercialization. (19)

Grok integrates with Interactive Brokers trading platform

xAI partnered with Interactive Brokers to integrate Grok into the broker’s trading platform, enabling clients to analyze portfolios, model market scenarios, research investments, and generate trade instructions using natural language. The integration expands Interactive Brokers’ AI ecosystem alongside ChatGPT and Claude, while extending AI-assisted trading to options, futures, and futures options, with client approval required before execution. (20)

OTHER NEWS

ByteDance targets next-generation CPU for AI infrastructure

ByteDance is developing a next-generation in-house CPU to strengthen its AI infrastructure, with chip design expected to be finalized by early 2027 and mass production targeted for the second half of 2027. The processor is intended to support growing demand from AI products including Doubao and Seedance, as ByteDance expands its portfolio of proprietary AI hardware through collaboration with Qualcomm. (21)

ByteDance seeks $20B loan to expand AI infrastructure

ByteDance is in preliminary discussions to raise a $20B offshore loan, its largest global borrowing to date, as the company accelerates investment in AI infrastructure. The financing, expected to carry a three-year tenor with an option to extend to five years, would further strengthen ByteDance's capital position as it scales AI development and computing capacity. (22)

Crusoe targets $10B Israel data center expansion

Crusoe is reportedly set to invest around $10B in Israeli data center capacity over the next 10–15 years, expanding its leased footprint to 150MW. The company recently signed an additional 100MW of leases, including expanded agreements with Anan Group and MegaDC, strengthening its AI infrastructure presence as demand for hyperscale compute continues to accelerate. (23)

Harmattan AI wins France's 5,000-drone contract

France awarded Harmattan AI a contract for 5,000 Sonora intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drones, expanding an initial 1,000-unit order placed in 2025. Production will be supported by Harmattan’s new facility with capacity to manufacture 10,000 drones per month, reflecting accelerating demand for autonomous defense systems and scalable drone production. (24)

Mistral launches OCR 4 for enterprise document AI

Mistral launched OCR 4, a document intelligence model that turns PDFs, DOCs, PPTs, and OpenDocument files into structured, auditable outputs with bounding boxes, block classification, and word-level confidence scores. Supporting 170 languages and deployable inside customer infrastructure, the model strengthens Mistral’s enterprise AI and sovereignty pitch while pricing starts at $4 per 1,000 pages, or $2 in batch mode. (25)

Meta explores Polymarket and Kalshi partnerships for Arena

Meta is developing Arena, a prediction markets app targeting 100M monthly active users, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly encouraged discussions with Polymarket and Kalshi as potential partners. Designed around points rather than real-money betting, Arena aims to integrate prediction-based engagement across sports, finance, politics, and entertainment before expanding into Facebook and Messenger. (26)

Shield AI wins $16M Poland naval drone contract

Poland awarded Shield AI a $16M contract to supply MQ-35 V-BAT unmanned aerial systems for the Polish Navy, with deliveries scheduled by year-end. The vertical takeoff and landing drones will support maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, while strengthening protection of critical infrastructure and operating effectively in GPS-denied and electronic warfare environments. (27)

Shield AI acquires Aechelon to strengthen AI autonomy

Shield AI acquired military simulation specialist Aechelon Technology, combining its Hivemind autonomy software with Aechelon’s simulation and synthetic training capabilities used in the Pentagon’s Joint Simulation Environment. The acquisition follows Shield AI’s $2B financing round, which valued the company at $12.7B, and strengthens its autonomous defense technology platform. (28)

FDA drops enforcement against Whoop blood pressure feature

The FDA ended its enforcement action against Whoop after the company modified its Blood Pressure Insights feature to better align with updated wellness device guidance. The changes remove diagnostic-style visual cues while reinforcing the feature as a wellness estimate rather than a clinical measurement, reflecting the FDA’s evolving approach to wearable health technologies. (29)

CHART OF THE WEEK

Venture funds are using secondaries to generate liquidity

Venture funds used to wait years for an exit. Now they're making their own.

For most of venture's history, returning capital to investors meant one of two things: an IPO or an acquisition. You built, you held, and you waited, sometimes a decade or more, for a public listing or a buyer to show up.

That model has changed. With IPO timelines stretching longer and traditional exits remaining unpredictable, venture funds are now using secondary sales to return capital to their investors on their own terms.

Liquidity is no longer an event that private market investors just sit around and wait for. It is being generated directly within private markets themselves, transaction by transaction.

This is the shift the Stableton Morningstar PitchBook Unicorn 20 strategy is built around, focusing on private blue-chip technology leaders where institutional demand is strong and secondary activity keeps growing, so investors can take part in the value being created long before any public listing.

THE UNTOLD UNICORN STORY

Ripple: The blockchain backbone of global finance

Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse. Source: Bloomberg (30)

Imagine being able to send money anywhere in the world as quickly as a message. That’s the promise of Ripple Labs, the San Francisco-based company using blockchain to modernize global payments.

Founded in 2012, Ripple developed the XRP Ledger, a decentralized network that enables financial institutions to settle cross-border transactions in seconds and at a fraction of traditional costs. Its enterprise-grade solutions focus on transparency, speed, and regulatory alignment, bridging the gap between banks and the digital-asset economy. With an expanding network of banking and fintech partners worldwide, Ripple continues to refine the plumbing of global finance through institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure. (31)

Fun Fact: Arthur Britto, one of Ripple's three co-founders, is so intensely private there are no verified photographs of him, he has never given an interview or public statement, and has sparked conspiracy theories that he doesn't even exist. In June 2025, after 14 years of total silence, Britto broke his silence by posting a single emoji on social media, which sent XRP's price up 8%.

Did you know? Ripple is one of the 20 companies in our Stableton Morningstar PitchBook Unicorn 20 strategy, a systematic, index approach that aims to outperform public benchmarks with low-cost fees, and without a performance fee. Click below for more information.

SOURCES

1 - Reuters, 2 - Quartz, 3 - Bloomberg, 4 - Anthropic, 5 - Deutsche Welle, 6 - TechCrunch, 7 - Intelligent CIO, 8 - Databricks, 9 - CG Channel, 10 - Kraken Blog, 11 - Decrypt, 12 - Financial Times, 13 - CNBC, 14 - OpenAI, 15 - Financial Times, 16 - The Fintech Times, 17 - CoinDesk, 18 - CNBC, 19 - Financial Times, 20 - xAI, 21 - South China Morning Post, 22 - Bloomberg, 23 - Data Center Dynamics, 24 - The Defense Post, 25 - VentureBeat, 26 - The New York Times, 27 - Breaking Defense, 28 - The Defense Post, 29 - STAT News, 30 - Bloomberg, 31 - Bloomberg