Hi! Anticrust lawsuit: JM Smucker, maker of Uncrustables — the frozen sandwiches that are now a near-billion-dollar business — is suing Trader Joe’s over a dupe PB&J, alleging similarities in packaging and “pie-like” crimping. Today we’re exploring:

Have feedback for us? Just hit reply - we'd love to hear from you!

The revenue race between Anthropic and OpenAI is getting more heated

Whether it’s the ~$1 trillion worth of deals the company’s signed, how it might actually make the money it needs to finance them, or just how tricky it’s become to track the money going in and out of Sam Altman’s business as of late, OpenAI’s financials have been under even more scrutiny than usual.

This week, however, there’s been time for some of the spotlight to shine on Anthropic’s section of the AI world stage, with reports that the Bezos-backed ChatGPT rival is on track to hit an annual revenue run rate of $9 billion by the end of the year. It was also reported that the Claude maker is almost tripling its annual revenue goals for 2026, which could rise to nearly as much as $26 billion. 

While that would make the financial disparity between Anthropic and the behemoth behind ChatGPT and Sora very interesting, the revenue race between the two has already been heating up a little recently.

A lot has changed since Anthropic’s yearly revenue run rate hit $1 billion last December, and even more has shifted since OpenAI reached the same milestone in the summer of 2023, as the chatbots now each rack up hundreds of millions of site visits every month.

Though OpenAI’s valuation has soared to $500 billion, making it the world’s most valuable private company and putting it far ahead of Anthropic’s $183 billion figure, the two are closer on revenue than you might expect, with OpenAI’s annual revenue run rate reportedly hitting the $12 billion mark in late July and Anthropic getting to $7 billion this month.

Read this on the web instead

The remarkable rise of the Honeycrisp and Cosmic Crisp apples

America is a land of diversity, where people, cultures, and inspirations combine in a melting pot of different ideas. But ask a room full of people what their favorite apple is, and these days you might get a lot of the same answer: Honeycrisp.

The apple of our eyes

Unfortunately, as the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week, farming them is something of a nightmare. Honeycrisps are easily bruised; often grow too densely for their own good; have to be hand-clipped from trees due to their thin skin; and can be afflicted by diseases that blotch the fruit. The variety is, as one farmer put it, a “diva.”

But they’re also valuable, dubbed by some as “moneycrisps.” And, along with Cosmic Crisps and Pink Ladys, they’re soaring up the apple production league tables towards icons like Gala and Red Delicious, which have seen production drop over time.

Per data from USApple, the core of the apple-eating market is increasingly the three varieties that make a mouth-watering crunch: Cosmic Crisp, Pink Lady, and Honeycrisp — production volumes of which have jumped 3,391%, 63%, and 17% in the last five years, respectively.

Remarkably, a study published all the way back in 2013 essentially predicted this boom, finding that when consumers assessed apples based on their appearance, they looked for size and color. When evaluating taste they wanted sweetness and crispness. And they’re willing to pay: per retail price data tracked by USApple, Honeycrisp was the most expensive apple in 2023/24, at $1.88, compared to Galas at $1.49, and Red Delicious apples at $1.26.

But, with production expenses for fruit farms rising across the board, up 49% over the last decade, even producers of the “moneycrisp” have been feeling the pressure in the industry’s bottom line — and the new crunchier and crispier varieties also tend to have more volatile prices.

Read this on the web instead

YouTuber MrBeast has filed a trademark for a financial services venture

One of the recurring themes in the oeuvre of YouTube’s MrBeast is large dollar sums of money, often rewarded by the thousands or even millions, to contestants that participate in his various viral challenges.

But rather than giving cash away for completing stunts like sitting in a bathtub of snakes or being trapped in a burning building, the 446 million-subscriber-strong content creator now seems to be exploring the idea of accepting deposits.

$1 vs. $500,000 Study Grant!

The internet sensation, real name Jimmy Donaldson, filed a trademark for Mr Beast Financial with the US Patent Office earlier this week, Business Insider reported on Wednesday. While specific details remain unclear, the application lists plans for a “mobile app and online services for a range of banking, financial advisory, crypto exchange, and other services.”

Per BI, these initiatives are very close to a pitch deck from the YouTuber’s company that was shown to investors back in February. This described “Beast Financial,” a fintech arm that would provide “customized offerings” — like student loans, credit insights, and insurance — supported by financial literacy content and targeted toward the vast, growing, and predominantly young MrBeast audience.

Indeed, the world’s top YouTuber is still racking up sky-scraping viewer numbers, as the channel rapidly approaches 100 billion views, surging further ahead of scores of imitators mimicking his distinctive style of devilish challenges and garish thumbnails. Though it took MrBeast’s main channel 6.5 years to hit 1 billion total views, now the channel is accruing over 3 billion views per month on average.

And the MrBeast machine shows no sign of slowing: “Beast Games,” the controversial competition reality show created and hosted by Donaldson for Amazon Prime, was renewed for two additional seasons in May. The show is Prime Video’s most watched unscripted program ever, having racked up 50 million views in its first 25 days.

Read this on the web instead

Off the charts: Netflix just signed a deal with Spotify to broadcast 16 video podcasts from the Swedish giant, in what some interpret as an effort to take on which behemoth in the space? [Answer below]. 

Answer here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Have some feedback or want to sponsor this newsletter?

Not a subscriber? Sign up for free below.

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... See more

SHERWOOD MEDIA, LLC, 85 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025