AI Too Big to Fail, OpenAI Trails Anthropic

Data centers have become a surprising political flashpoint heading into midterm elections, with opposition rooted less in environmental concerns and more in public backlash against AI itself. Meanwhile, Big Tech's AI spending is $3 trillion higher than balance sheets suggest, raising fresh questions about profitability and systemic risk. OpenAI is losing ground to Anthropic, which may file for IPO as early as late August. Stripe acquired AI model router OpenRouter for $7.5 billion, cybersecurity firms are racing to secure AI agents, and all eyes turn to Nvidia earnings next week for a read on the AI infrastructure buildout.