Replit adopted OpenAI over Anthropic as its default coding model, heating up competition over model distribution, and Anthropic opened "employee-level" system access to the nonprofit watchdog METR and offered a 5% equity public benefit fund — but the draft AI bill's "50 deaths" intervention threshold drew backlash. Meta and Apple teamed up on an open model that runs on Mac, and in Korea, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix wavered on worries about Chinese DRAM expansion and AI infrastructure investment.
🛠️ Replit Parts Ways with Anthropic and Makes OpenAI Its Default Coding Model
Replit adopted OpenAI as its default coding model after comparing production performance, price, and partnership terms. Anthropic pushed back on the characterization that the relationship had fully ended, and Replit stressed that it "remains model-neutral so customers can choose alternatives." Still, with who owns the coding agent's "default" emerging as a variable in the race for enterprise customers, model competition is shifting its center of gravity from benchmark scores to "distribution and economics."
👀 Anthropic Grants Nonprofit AI Watchdog METR 'Employee-Level' System Access
Anthropic granted the nonprofit AI watchdog METR "employee-like" access to its systems. METR, which conducts frontier risk assessments without compensation, plans to investigate alignment problems (misaligned autonomous behavior, concealed bad behavior), monitoring controls, and whether AI research automation is outpacing safeguards. It is a voluntary arrangement and not a formal safety audit, since the company can keep material private — but it draws attention as a moment when a frontier lab opened its doors amid a string of agent incidents.
💰 Anthropic Puts 5% of Its Equity into a Public Benefit Fund — More Added as Share Price Rises
Anthropic put 5% of its equity into a new Public Benefit Fund, with another 2% added each time the company's value rises 50%. Lobbying activity is excluded. Coming as the EU's first AI Act enforcement and a US FTC investigation proceed over the escaped-agent incidents, the move is read as a signal of "showing voluntary responsibility before regulation." Whether a voluntary fund can substitute for mandatory regulation remains a matter of debate, however.
⚖️ Anthropic Draft AI Bill's '50 Deaths' Intervention Threshold Sparks Controversy — Mistral CEO Calls It "Regulatory Capture"
Anthropic's draft AI safety bill presented to the US Congress drew criticism for setting a threshold under which the government could intervene only when AI threatens more than 50 people. Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch charged directly that US companies are "weaponizing" doomsday warnings as a means of controlling the market, and President Trump called AI extinction warnings a "scam" while defending self-regulation. Coming right after researchers and current and former frontier-lab researchers warned of an AI runaway by 2030, the "self-regulation vs. mandatory regulation" debate is heating up again.
🤝 Meta and Apple Team Up on 'Muse Spark,' an Open Model That Runs on Mac
Meta and Apple jointly released an open model that runs directly on Mac. According to the weekly briefing, this week also saw the unveiling of Meta's first frontier model, "Muse Wonder," and Microsoft's new Maia 300 chip aimed at reducing dependence on Nvidia. A locally runnable open model arriving through a Big Tech partnership is a sign that the flow of "AI running directly on devices, beyond cloud subscriptions" is now in full swing.
🇰🇷 Musk Raises Chinese DRAM Expansion — Will Samsung and SK's Pricing Power Waver?
Tesla CEO Elon Musk criticized memory chip pricing policy on X and raised the possibility of large-scale Chinese DRAM expansion. ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is estimated to expand facilities to 500,000 wafers per month by the end of 2028, potentially accounting for up to 17% of global DRAM production capacity. Having already signed 3–5 year long-term supply contracts with Tencent and begun mass production of fifth-generation DRAM (G5), if AI data center demand does not absorb the supply, downward pressure on general-purpose DRAM prices could hit Samsung and SK's pricing leverage.
🇰🇷 Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix Waver on AI Infrastructure Investment Worries — Extreme Undervaluation Despite Record Earnings
On the morning of the 19th, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix opened down more than 2% in the Korean market on AI infrastructure investment worries and weakness in US tech stocks. Strikingly, even as the two companies posted record earnings (Samsung Electronics' third-quarter operating profit of 107 trillion won, the first global tech company to pass 100 trillion won in a quarter), their 12-month forward P/E ratios have fallen to 4.7x and 3.5x respectively, a stark gap with Micron (11x) and Nvidia (27x). Domestic and foreign brokerages report buying on dips as well, saying it is investor sentiment weighed down by AI profitability and China uncertainty, not damaged fundamentals.