ETF Outflows, Dell's Phenomenal Q1, & Anthropic Valuation

If you have a little too much free time this weekend, the Pope published a 42,300-word encyclical about AI, which you can read here. Honestly, it’s kind of a banger.

This Week in Crypto

Crypto prices are now reacting less and less to headlines out of the Middle East - maybe a sign of mature market participants?

• Either way, Bitcoin spent most of the week in the $76K-$78K range, inching up slightly on Iran ceasefire optimism but then sliding again today.

• U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded about $2.8B in net outflows from May 15-28, the longest redemption streak since the ETFs launched in January 2024.

• The largest single-day outflow was $733.43M on Wednesday, with BlackRock's IBIT accounting for $527.84M of that.

• Wondering where all that institutional capital went? Mostly into AI-linked tokens, Nvidia, and the semiconductor trade. NEAR Protocol surged 15%, Worldcoin 17%, and Render 15% as capital rotated from majors into AI-linked tokens.

Trump Media & Technology Group withdrew regulatory filings for three proposed cryptocurrency ETFs - the Truth Social Bitcoin ETF, Truth Social Bitcoin & Ethereum ETF, and Truth Social Crypto Blue Chip ETF.

• Trump Media asked the SEC to credit the registration fees for future use, leaving room for possible future filings.

SpaceX disclosed in an SEC filing that it holds 18,712 bitcoin, currently worth around $1.45B.

• And it arrived alongside a separate CNBC report that Elon Musk explored combining Tesla and SpaceX - a potential merger that, as an incidental byproduct, would create one of the largest corporate bitcoin treasuries on earth.

This Week in TradFi

The stock market remains strong!

• The S&P 500 spent the week, making incremental gains - having already clinched 18 record highs this year.

• Corporate earnings are providing the fuel: Q1 2026 delivered the highest quarterly earnings growth rate since 2021, with 84% of companies beating estimates.

• Thursday’s economic data was a bit of a mixed bag: PCE inflation came in slightly below expectations, but the government’s Q1 GDP estimate was revised downward.

Dell had the quarter of its life:

• Dell reported first-quarter revenue that soared nearly 88% YoY, with AI server revenue alone up 757% YoY.

• Dell also raised its full-year revenue guidance to roughly $167B, up from a prior outlook of $140B and well above analyst estimates of $142B.

And, the pattern we can all count on: Nvidia beat estimates, and the stock dropped. Obviously.

• Nvidia reported record revenue of $81.6B for Q1, up 85% YoY, with data center revenue of $75.2B up 92%.

• The company also announced an $80B share buyback and raised its quarterly dividend.

• And… shares fell 0.9% on the day.

This Week in Tech

The AI valuation singularity is here:

• Anthropic is set to close a funding round topping $30B at a valuation above $900B, making it most the valuable private AI startup in the world, surpassing OpenAI.

• Anthropic expects its annualized run rate revenue to top $50B by the end of June.

Blue Origin had a rough Thursday:

• Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket exploded on its Florida launchpad Thursday night as engineers were counting down to a static fire test.

• The explosion came just two days after NASA awarded Blue Origin a $188M contract to land rovers on the moon's surface, and less than a week after SpaceX carried out a largely successful test of its next-generation rocket.

Readers may remember last week’s story about Google’s AI search overview flub, when you couldn’t search words like ‘ignore’ or ‘disregard’. Well, there’s another issue:

• How many Ps are in Google? Apparently two.

• Also, according to Google’s AI overview, there’s 1 R in the word poop and two Ds in the word journalism.

• “Counting within words has been a known challenge for LLMs, and we’re working to fix this particular issue,” Google told TechCrunch in an emailed statement.

• DuckDuckGo installs are up 30% since Google's search overhaul announcement, with users citing the inability to opt out of AI results.

As usual, below are some fundraising announcements, M&A, and tech personnel changes that caught our eye:

• Chip startup XCENA has raised a $135M Series B at a valuation of $570M.

• Insurance tech startup Corgi has raised a $106M Series B1, valuing the company at $2.6B.

Arch is building a next-gen wealth management platform for individuals holding Alternative Assets. Our flagship product is the crypto-backed loan, which allows you to securely and affordably borrow against your crypto.

Disclaimer: None of the above is financial advice, seriously.