AI news5
Infostealer malware is hijacking Claude sessions to drain paid usage
Anthropic disclosed on 30 August that infostealer malware already active on users' own machines, including Vidar, LummaC2, StealC and Atomic Stealer on Mac, is stealing browser session cookies and using them to hijack logged-in Claude accounts without needing a password or 2FA. The malware has nothing to do with Claude itself and typically arrives through unofficial downloads or pirated software, but once installed it drains a victim's paid usage limits. Anthropic is signing out affected users, wiping saved payment methods and refunding unauthorized charges.
bleepingcomputer.com ↗Why it matters
session-cookie theft is emerging as a standard attack vector against AI subscription services industry-wide, since the technique bypasses passwords and 2FA entirely.
DeepSeek nears a $7.4 billion round at a $74 billion valuation
DeepSeek is closing a roughly 50 billion yuan ($7.4B) funding round at a pre-money valuation near $74 billion, people familiar with the matter said on 28 August, with existing backers Monolith, Shixiang Capital and CATL among the participants. The raise is aimed at compute buildout and positions DeepSeek for a possible IPO filing later this year, targeting a Shanghai STAR Market listing in 2027. Neither DeepSeek nor its investors have publicly confirmed the deal.
techstartups.com ↗Why it matters
a Chinese lab approaching an $80 billion-plus valuation ahead of a domestic IPO shows China's frontier-AI ecosystem is now raising and valuing at a scale comparable to top US labs.
Nvidia posts record $96.2 billion quarterly revenue, up 106% year over year
Nvidia reported revenue of $96.2 billion for its fiscal second quarter ended 26 July, up 18% from the prior quarter and 106% from a year earlier, beating analyst expectations of roughly $92.2 billion. Data center sales alone reached $75.2 billion, up 92% year over year. The results were announced 26 August after markets closed.
nvidianews.nvidia.com ↗Why it matters
continued triple-digit annual growth at this scale is the clearest signal that AI infrastructure spending has not slowed despite a year of "AI bubble" commentary.
AWS and Nvidia expand their partnership with 2 million more GPUs and a robotics push
Amazon Web Services and Nvidia announced on 26-27 August a major expansion of their partnership, planning to deploy 2 million additional Nvidia GPUs across AWS's global infrastructure. As part of the deal, Amazon Robotics is integrating Nvidia's full physical-AI stack, including Jetson, Omniverse and Isaac, to speed up warehouse automation through simulation and synthetic data generation.
press.aboutamazon.com ↗Why it matters
the robotics component signals the next phase of the AWS-Nvidia relationship is about physical automation, not just training larger language models.
California lawmakers race to pass roughly two dozen AI bills before today's adjournment
California's legislature adjourns for the year at the end of business on 31 August, with lawmakers finishing votes on close to two dozen AI-related bills covering chatbot safety, children's AI use, medical and mental-health disclosure, and oversight of the most powerful frontier models. The push builds on the state's existing companion-chatbot law, which already requires AI disclosure and suicide and self-harm safety protocols.
pluribusnews.com ↗Why it matters
California AI law tends to become a de facto national compliance floor, since most major AI companies are headquartered there.