TRO | Anthropic Targets US$900 Billion Valuation

Plus, Lovable Brings Vibe Coding To Mobile and Mistral Launches Autonomous Cloud Coding Agents

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Meliora Company
May 04, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

 Subscribe | 4th May, 2026

In this fast-moving Vertical AI economy, headlines are everywhere but optimism is rare.

Here’s our take on 3 stories that will help you be relentlessly optimistic about the future.

1. Anthropic Targets US$900 Billion Valuation

Anthropic is in talks to raise US$40–50 billion at a valuation of up to US$900 billion - more than double its US$380 billion valuation from just three months ago. If the round closes, it would overtake OpenAI, last valued at US$852 billion, as the most valuable private AI company in the world. A board decision is expected in May, with a potential IPO as early as October 2026. Anthropic's annualised revenue run rate has surpassed US$30 billion, up from US$9 billion at the end of 2025, with enterprise customers now representing approximately 80% of revenue.

Here’s why this matters: The speed of Anthropic's valuation trajectory is extraordinary even by current AI standards - from US$61 billion in early 2025 to a potential US$900 billion in May 2026. But the more revealing number is the revenue line. Growing from US$9 billion to US$30 billion in annualised revenue in under six months is without precedent in American technology history, and it is being driven almost entirely by enterprise adoption. Claude Code, Cowork, and an expanding suite of workplace tools have turned Anthropic from a research lab into a commercial platform at remarkable speed. An October IPO would make this one of the most significant public market debuts in a generation.

2. Lovable Brings Vibe Coding To Mobile

Lovable, the worlds fastest growing no-code AI app builder, has launched on both the Apple App Store and Google Play, allowing users to build websites and web apps via voice or text prompts directly from their phone. The app lets users start a project on mobile and pick up on desktop, with autonomous agent runs and build notifications in between. The launch comes despite Apple's recent crackdown on vibe-coding apps that download new code or change functionality post-approval - Lovable has complied by limiting output to websites and web apps rather than native apps.

Here’s why this matters: Vibe coding (building software through natural language prompts rather than writing code) is one of the fastest-growing behaviours in tech right now, and putting it in your pocket changes who can participate. The ability to capture an app idea on the go and hand it to an AI agent to build autonomously removes one of the last remaining barriers to software creation: access to a desktop. Apple's App Store restrictions are a telling subplot - the platform's rules around code execution reveal a genuine tension between enabling AI-native development tools and maintaining the security model that makes the App Store trustworthy. How that tension resolves will shape which vibe coding platforms win.

3. Mistral Launches Autonomous Cloud Coding Agents

Mistral has launched Medium 3.5 - a powerful open-source model designed for long-horizon tasks and complex coding - alongside a new class of remote coding agents that run autonomously in the cloud. Rather than step-by-step interaction, developers can now launch tasks from the command line or Le Chat, run multiple coding jobs in parallel, and receive results as pull requests when complete. The agents integrate directly with GitHub, Jira, Slack, and Microsoft Teams, and can handle refactoring, test generation, debugging, and dependency management independently.

Here’s why this matters: The shift from AI coding assistant to AI coding agent is one of the most consequential transitions in software development right now, and Mistral is making a precise move into that space. The distinction matters: an assistant waits for instructions and executes one step at a time; an agent takes a task, works through it autonomously, and returns a finished output. For enterprise engineering teams, the productivity implications are significant - high-volume tasks like test generation or dependency updates can now run in the background while developers focus on higher-judgment work. Because the model is open-source and lightweight, organisations can run it on their own infrastructure without needing significant computing power.

Still Curious?

Our Pursuit Of Better

Freshfields has deployed Claude across 5,700 staff in 33 offices globally, co-building agentic workflows for contract review, due diligence, and legal research with adoption growing 500% in six weeks. In December, Meliora predicted vertical AI would outperform general models in 2026. The Freshfields-Anthropic deal is the first major proof point, and it shows exactly where the value layer sits: horizontal models, vertical workflows, commercial outcomes.

ComfyUI, a node-based workflow tool that gives creators granular control over AI-generated image, video, and audio outputs, has raised US$30 million at a US$500 million valuation, led by Craft Ventures. Started as an open-source project in 2023, the platform now has over 4 million users across visual effects, animation, advertising, and industrial design with "ComfyUI artist" increasingly appearing as a formal job title.

London-based AI recruiting start up, Dex, founded by former Atomico VC Paddy Lambros, has raised US$5.3 million in seed funding led by Notion Capital. The platform uses AI agents to match candidates to roles through conversational interviews, charging employers 20–30% of a hired candidate's salary. Since launching paid services in late 2025, Dex has reached US$1.8 million in annualised revenue with over 50 tech companies on board.

The Story of The Kick that Changed Everything

Brisbane, 2023. A 25-year-old stands twelve yards from goal. Between her and history: a goalkeeper, a football, and the weight of an entire nation watching. Until now, women’s football had been a side story. But in this moment, everything is about to change.

Meliora Team Spotlight

Vijay Solanki - Australia

Vijay is a seasoned leader specialising in AI, entrepreneurship, and strategy. Having worked with companies like Unilever, Philips and Shazam, he is at the transection of adaption and innovation.

Brendan Collogan - Australia

Brendan has a wealth of commercial experience in digital products and content strategy, along with a profound understanding of content economics and commercialisation.

The Pursuit of Better, Together

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