Ripple

AI PACs Spend $20M in New York Primary

AI companies and affiliated political action committees have poured more than $20 million into the Democratic primary for New York’s 12th congressional district, turning the race into a proxy fight over AI regulation. Two large super PACs are competing directly: Leading the Future (backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Open AI co-founder Greg Brockman and Perplexity) spent about $8 million opposing Assemblyman Alex Bores, while Public First Action — supported by roughly $20 million from Anthropic — has backed Bores with roughly $11 million. Smaller PACs and donors (including Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen and Anthropic donor Dan Ziegler) have also spent on the contest. Bores, a lead sponsor of a New York AI safety bill, supports stronger AI safeguards; Leading the Future advocates lighter national guardrails. Because the district is heavily Democratic, the primary winner is likely to take the House seat, making the contest influential for future federal AI policy.

Flutterwave valued at $3.2B with Ripple investment

Flutterwave announced a Series E that values the African payments infrastructure company at $3.2 billion. The round includes an equity investment and strategic partnership with blockchain payments company Ripple, which will provide infrastructure to expand Flutterwave’s digital-asset offerings across Africa. Flutterwave did not disclose the round size and says it has raised more than $500 million to date. The company operates in 35 African countries and has recently pursued API unification and stablecoin-based cross-border payments, including a prior partnership with Polygon Labs and the acquisition of Mono to adopt API technology.

Anthropic Tops CNBC Disruptor 50 in 2026

CNBC published its 2026 Disruptor 50 on May 19, 2026, naming Anthropic as the No. 1 company as generative AI intensifies its dominance across the list. CNBC reports 43 of the 50 companies say AI is essential to their business models. Total funding for the 2026 cohort rose to $337 billion (from $127 billion in 2025) and total implied valuation climbed to $2.4 trillion (from $798 billion), driven largely by top AI firms. The list highlights geographic concentration in Silicon Valley — 14 companies in San Francisco, 18 in the Bay Area, and 23 in California — and calls out new themes such as “vibe coding” and prediction markets. The annual ranking profiles 50 venture-backed companies across sectors, reflecting shifts in enterprise AI, defense tech, fintech and creative/production tooling.