BUSINESS

Anthropic today released Claude Sonnet 5, a new AI model that the company says delivers near-flagship performance at mid-tier prices — a move designed to give cost-conscious enterprise developers access to powerful agentic capabilities just as the San Francisco-based AI lab barrels toward an initial public offering that will test whether the private market’s staggering AI valuations can survive public scrutiny.The release, which Anthropic describes as “the most agentic Sonnet model yet,” makes Sonnet 5 the default model for users on Anthropic’s Free and Pro plans, while also making it available to Max, Team, and Enterprise customers. Introductory API pricing is set at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens through August 31, after which it rises to $3 and $15 respectively — still well below the $5 input and $25 output pricing of Anthropic’s top-of-the-line Opus 4.8.The strategic logic is unmistakable: Anthropic is trying to democratize access to capabilities that until very recently only its most expensive models could deliver, while building the kind of broad-based developer adoption that will look attractive in an S-1 filing.Sonnet 5 benchmarks show the mid-tier model closing in on Anthropic’s flagship OpusSonnet 5 posts major gains over its predecessor, Sonnet 4.6, across every evaluation Anthropic disclosed. On SWE-bench Pro, an agentic coding benchmark, Sonnet 5 scores 63.2% compared with Sonnet 4.6’s 58.1% — a jump that brings it within striking distance of Opus 4.8’s 69.2%. On Terminal-Bench 2.1, another coding evaluation, the gap narrows further: 80.4% for Sonnet 5 versus 67.0% for Sonnet 4.6 and 82.7% for Opus 4.8.In multidisciplinary reasoning, as measured by Humanity’s Last Exam, Sonnet 5 scores 43.2% without tools and 57.4% with tools — the latter figure essentially matching Opus 4.8’s 57.9%. On computer use tasks evaluated through OSWorld-Verified, Sonnet 5 reaches 81.2%, up from 78.5%. And on GDPval-AA v2, a knowledge-work benchmark, it scores 1,618 — surpassing Opus 4.8’s 1,615 and far exceeding Sonnet 4.6’s 1,395.The pattern across these evaluations tells a consistent story: Sonnet 5 doesn’t merely inch forward from its predecessor. It vaults into a performance tier that overlaps substantially with Anthropic’s flagship model, while costing roughly 60% less per token at standard pricing and even less during the introductory period.Enterprise partners say Sonnet 5’s agentic AI capabilities finish jobs that previous models abandonedThe emphasis on agentic capabilities — the ability to plan, use tools like browsers and terminals, and execute multi-step workflows autonomously — reflects where the AI industry’s center of gravity has shifted in 2026. Enterprises are no longer simply asking chatbots questions; they are deploying AI systems that can navigate complex software environments, execute multi-step coding tasks, and operate with minimal human supervision.Early access partners painted a picture of a model that doesn’t just start tasks but finishes them. Sualeh Asif, co-founder of Cursor, the AI-powered code editor that has become a bellwether for developer tool adoption, said that “with Claude Sonnet 5, agents stay on plan, follow our conventions, and ship clean multi-step changes, all at an efficient cost.” Daniel Shepard, a senior engineer at Zapier, described handing the model a two-part automation job — updating Salesforce account tiers and sending a launch announcement — that “used to stall halfway” with previous models but now completes end to end.These testimonials matter because they describe exactly the kind of reliability gap that has kept many enterprises from moving agentic AI from pilot programs to production deployments. A model that gets 80% of the way through a complex task before stalling creates more problems than it solves; one that reliably completes the full workflow changes the economics of automation. Anthropic also introduced cost-performance curves showing that developers can now adjust effort levels across Sonnet 5 and Opus 4.8 to find the optimal balance of cost and accuracy for their specific use case — a granularity that reflects growing sophistication in how enterprises consume AI services.An updated tokenizer boosts Sonnet 5 performance but could quietly raise costs for some workloadsOne technical detail buried in the announcement’s footnotes deserves attention: Sonnet 5 uses an updated tokenizer that changes how the model processes text, similar to the change Anthropic introduced with Opus 4.7.The tradeoff is that the same input can map to roughly 1.0 to 1.35 times as many tokens depending on content type. Anthropic says the introductory pricing is calibrated to make the transition “roughly cost-neutral,” but enterprise customers running high-volume workloads will want to benchmark their specific use cases carefully before assuming their bills won’t change.Anthropic says Sonnet 5 is safer than its predecessor, but its most capable models still lead on alignmentAnthropic’s safety disclosures reveal a nuanced picture. The company reports that Sonnet 5 shows lower rates of hallucination and sycophancy than Sonnet 4.6, is better at refusing malicious requests, and is more resistant to prompt injection attacks in agentic contexts. On Anthropic’s automated behavioral audit — which tests for a wide range of misaligned behaviors including cooperation with misuse and deception — Sonnet 5 scored lower (meaning safer) overall than Sonnet 4.6.However, Sonnet 5 showed “somewhat higher rates of misaligned behavior” compared with the more capable Opus 4.8 and Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview, the company’s powerful but tightly restricted cybersecurity-focused model. On a Firefox 147 exploit development evaluation created in collaboration with Mozilla, neither Sonnet model could develop a working exploit — both scored 0.0% — though Sonnet 5 showed a slightly higher partial success rate (13.2%) than Sonnet 4.6 (8.8%). Both remain far below Opus 4.8 (68.8% working exploits) and Mythos 5 (88.4%).Because of these incremental gains in cyber-adjacent capabilities, Anthropic launched Sonnet 5 with cyber safeguards enabled by default — real-time systems that detect and block dangerous cybersecurity usage. The safeguards mirror those on Opus 4.7 and 4.8 but are less restrictive than those applied to Fable 5, the latest Mythos-class model that Bloomberg reported on June 10 is “blocked from responding to queries related to cybersecurity and biology.” Organizations enrolled in Anthropic’s Cyber Verification Program automatically receive the same access on Sonnet 5 without needing to reapply.From $14 billion to $47 billion in revenue: Sonnet 5 arrives as Anthropic’s IPO narrative takes shapeThe Sonnet 5 launch arrives at what may be the most consequential moment in Anthropic’s short history. The company confidentially filed its IPO prospectus with the SEC in early June, setting up what CNBC has described as “the most scrutinized public offering in tech history.”The financial trajectory has been extraordinary. In February, Anthropic raised $30 billion at a $380 billion valuation, with the company reporting $14 billion in annualized revenue that had “grown more than tenfold in each of the past three years,” as The Guardian reported. By late May, Anthropic had closed a $65 billion Series H round at a $965 billion post-money valuation — co-led by Altimeter Capital, Sequoia Capital, and others — with a revenue run rate that had crossed $47 billion. Harrison Rolfes, an analyst at PitchBook, told CNBC that the number that will “either validate or collapse the entire narrative the private markets have been pricing for three years” won’t be the valuation or revenue, but gross margin — a figure no outside observer has yet seen.In this context, Sonnet 5 serves a dual purpose. For developers, it offers genuine capability improvements at competitive prices. For Anthropic’s IPO narrative, it demonstrates the company can deliver a compelling product at a price tier that could drive the kind of broad adoption Wall Street rewards — high-volume, recurring API revenue from thousands of enterprise customers.Government deals and growing competition define the market Sonnet 5 entersThe timing also aligns with Anthropic’s aggressive push into institutional contracts. Just yesterday, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a first-of-its-kind partnership providing Claude to all state agencies at a 50% discount, with free workforce training.Kate Jensen, Anthropic’s Head of Americas, called it an effort to “put Claude to work for the people who keep this state running.” The deal — which extends to California’s cities and counties — represents exactly the kind of durable, recurring adoption that could anchor revenue well beyond the developer community.But Anthropic’s release lands in an increasingly crowded field. OpenAI, which raised a $122 billion round in March at an $852 billion valuation, is pursuing its own IPO. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which merged with xAI, priced its IPO at $135 per share with a $1.77 trillion valuation. Google, Meta, and a growing wave of well-funded competitors — including Asian AI startups that, as the Wall Street Journal has reported, are developing Mythos-like cybersecurity capabilities — are all vying for the same enterprise market.Gil Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, told CNBC that while Anthropic “appears to have the lead” in frontier AI models, “much of their current usage is for trials and experimentation and that may not sustain.” That observation cuts to the heart of the challenge facing every frontier AI lab: converting experimental developer usage into durable, production-grade revenue.The real test for Sonnet 5 isn’t benchmarks — it’s whether cheaper AI can sustain a trillion-dollar storySonnet 5’s positioning — offering near-Opus performance at Sonnet prices — is a direct play for that conversion. Enterprise customers experimenting with expensive Opus-class models may find that Sonnet 5 delivers sufficient quality for production workloads at a price point that finance teams can approve at scale. If it works, it could accelerate the shift from experimentation to deployment that every AI company needs to justify its valuation.Three things will determine whether Sonnet 5 matters beyond the initial benchmark charts. Real-world agentic reliability is the first: benchmarks measure capability, but production deployments measure consistency, and the true test will come when thousands of developers push the model through messy, unpredictable workflows at scale.The tokenizer economics are the second: the updated tokenizer’s 1.0 to 1.35x token expansion could quietly erode the pricing advantage for certain workloads, and enterprise customers should run their own cost analyses rather than relying on headline per-token prices. The third is the IPO narrative itself: when Anthropic’s S-1 eventually becomes public, investors will scrutinize whether the Sonnet tier — cheaper but high-volume — or the Opus tier — expensive but high-margin — drives the bulk of revenue and, critically, gross profit.As PitchBook’s Rolfes told CNBC, the 2026 IPO window “either becomes the most consequential IPO cycle since the dot-com era or the most expensive lesson in narrative-versus-fundamentals that public markets have ever taught.”Anthropic is betting that a model good enough to rival its flagship and cheap enough to run at scale is the product that closes the gap between those two outcomes. The public markets will soon decide whether they agree.

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I bought my first home in 2022, attempting to purchase property before the rock-bottom mortgage rates from the Covid pandemic soared beyond reach.Apparently, everyone else in the greater Seattle area had the same idea. So did real estate investors.I tried buying six different houses that spring, but most of those times, investors beat me out with high down payments or all-cash bids. It was grueling to be a first-time homebuyer in an expensive, competitive housing market, especially when I could only afford to put 3% down.First-time homebuyers have a tougher time buying a house than people buying second homes or investment properties, according to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.And although first-time buyers face the brunt of the hardship, they aren’t the only ones struggling. After combing through Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data, the St. Louis Fed uncovered a surprising statistic.Your mortgage application is more likely to be denied if you’re buying any primary residence you plan to live in — not just your first home — than a second home or investment property.Higher borrowing standards don’t deter certain homebuyersAfter calculating numbers pulled from 2018-2024 HMDA data, the St. Louis Fed found that mortgages for investment properties were the most likely to be accepted, second residences were the next most likely, and owner-occupied primary residences came in dead last. The exception was 2024, when second and investment properties swapped — but principal homes were still third.Why is this mortgage denial statistic surprising? Because people buying second homes and investor properties don’t benefit from more lenient borrowing requirements.Actually, the opposite is true.To buy a home other than your primary residence, a mortgage lender typically requires a larger down payment, lower debt-to-income (DTI) ratio, and more cash reserves.Related: Redfin sees shift in housing market, home pricesBut these high standards don’t deter people buying second houses and investment properties. Because, in general, buyers in the position to buy these types of homes are more financially well off.This makes them less risky mortgage applicants.In 2024, the median down payment from those buying a primary residence was 9%, according the St. Louis Fed’s research. For people buying second homes or investment properties, it was 25%.Primary home buyers’ median DTI ratio was 41%. Second-house buyers’ median DTI ratio was 36%, and investment property buyers’ median was 37%.”These buyers of nonprimary residences don’t just sit below underwriting thresholds; they sit comfortably far from them,” wrote St. Louis Fed Associate Economist Manu Garcia and Director of Research Carlos Garriga. “This segment of the market is effectively insulated from the disqualification channel.”

Mortgage lenders receive stronger applications from those buying second residences or investment properties.Witthaya Prasongsin / Getty Images

Mortgage rates present an even greater disadvantage”These applications remain mechanically safe even as interest rates rise,” Garcia and Garriga wrote, referring to second-home and investment-home applications. “That makes their approval almost a mathematical certainty.”A June study by real estate technology Redfin revealed that monthly mortgage payments had reached their highest point in a year. The average hit $2,647, just $100 under the 2023 high.More Mortgages:6.5% mortgage rates give homebuyers unexpected opportunityMortgage rate outlook shifts after inflation updateZillow releases crucial new housing market predictionMortgage rates have sat around 6.5% for six weeks, according to Freddie Mac. Rates are a major reason housing payments have hit this record high.Your monthly mortgage payment affects affordability in two ways. The more obvious one is that the payment may simply be too high for you to comfortably buy a house within your budget.The second is that if your monthly mortgage payment is too high, it ups your DTI ratio, and mortgage lenders are less likely to approve your application.First-time homebuyers face more hurdles than repeat buyersThe numbers already favor investors over families buying primary residences. But the deck is stacked against first-time homebuyers in particular.All of the borrowing criteria mortgage lenders look at — income, DTI ratios, down payments — are even tougher for the typical first-time buyer than people who are simply moving and buying a primary residence for the second or third time.The average down payment for first-time homebuyers was 10% in 2025, according to the National Association of Realtors, while repeat buyers’ average was 23%. A lower down payment means lower collateral. Everything else being equal, if an investor or second-home buyer applied for a mortgage with 25% down, a repeat buyer with 23% down, and a first-time homebuyer with 10%, the mortgage lender probably isn’t going to choose the applicant with less than half for a down payment than the others.People buying second residences and investment homes typically use conventional loans, but first-time buyers are more likely to use FHA loans.You don’t have to be a first-time buyer to qualify for a mortgage backed by the Federal Housing Administration, but these loans have unofficially been dubbed “first-time homebuyer loans.” Eight out of 10 FHA loan borrowers were first-time buyers from 2020-2024, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.FHA loans come with a lot of perks, but they also present their own challenges.Not all mortgage lenders offer FHA loans, narrowing first-time buyers’ options for which companies they can use. FHA loans also charge mortgage insurance premiums (MIPs), and this extra charge increases an applicant’s DTI ratio.”In this environment, a rise in interest rates does more than increase the cost of debt; it triggers a cascade of institutional barriers that effectively closes the door on homeownership,” Garcia and Garriga wrote. “For this segment of the market, the ‘stacked deck’ means that even small shifts in the macroeconomy can lead to a total loss of credit access.”Tips for first-time homebuyersThe St. Louis Fed authors claimed that policy changes were necessary to address the home-buying problems facing people with less wealth.But until some policy takes effect, what can first-time homebuyers do to increase their changes of mortgage application approval? Here are some tips:Shop with several mortgage lenders. Apply for prequalification or preapproval with several lenders to see which will accept your application and offer you the best deal. Try applying with different types of companies, such as bank and non-bank lenders.Compare conventional and FHA loans. When evaluating lenders, talk to their loan officers about whether you qualify for a conventional loan. If so, ask them to pull up estimated costs for a conventional versus FHA loan so you can see the cost differences.Save more for a down payment. This may be easier said than done, but it can be a crucial part of competing with other types of buyers. It might just mean waiting another six months or a year to buy a house.Pay down debts. By reducing your monthly debt obligations, you’ll lower your DTI ratio. This leaves more wiggle room should you, say, need to get an FHA loan that charges monthly mortgage insurance premiums.Search for creative homebuying solutions. High home prices and mortgage rates have made it difficult to get your foot in the door as a homeowner. Consider an outside-the-box strategy like co-buying with a family member or friend. This approach allows you to combine incomes on your application and pool your money for a higher down payment.Related: Berkshire Hathaway says to ignore this home-buying red flag

CLEAR Secure has made millions by selling frequent flyers a “fast pass” for airport security lines. In just a few days, the price to skip the line will be going up … again.For the fourth time in roughly four years, the company will raise its CLEAR® Plus subscription by $10, with the billing changes taking effect on Jul. 1. Since May 2022, the price of the airport subscription has gone from $179/yr to $219/yr. It remains to be seen how these changes might impact the price of the company’s Family plan.Why is CLEAR getting more expensive?In May, CLEAR reported that it now served 8.2 million active subscribers across 60 U.S. airports. Growth was also accelerating, as the number of paying CLEAR+ members grew 13% year-over-year, an improvement from the prior quarter.CLEAR has grown despite its previous efforts to raise prices. Since May 2022, CLEAR has raised the price of CLEAR+ four separate times. Despite that, more users have signed up. To meet those demands, the company has invested heavily in new eGates intended to reduce labor and corral known travelers through security lines even faster.Undeniably, its investments in new operations, technology, and its ability to retain paying users have been major factors in reinforcing price increases. However, we reached out to CLEAR to better understand the underlying reasons for the price increases and whether consumers should get used to the plans rising in price every year. They have not yet responded to comment.Is there a way to offset the higher CLEAR price?Despite rising subscription fees, there are ways that frequent flyers can blunt the impact of higher prices. In fact, there are two ways to reduce the higher subscription fee, including one that can negate it almost entirely.Airline status buys you a discount (sorta)For years, airlines like Delta, United, and Alaska Airlines have offered a way to get reduced-price CLEAR subscriptions if you have frequent flyer status or a cobranded credit card. This is sticking around, even though the price is going up.Alaska Airlines will offer plans for $209/yr, along with a kickback in the form of points for all Atmos status holders. This will be what casual, non-status holding SkyMiles and MileagePlus customers can expect to pay as well.However, just having a cobranded Delta or United Airlines card can help frequent flyers save up to $40 off their annual membership, which would make it $179/yr going forward (assuming no other changes.)Status will buy you the same discount at Delta and United, as the $179/yr price will also apply to those with United’s Premier Silver, Gold, and Platinum, as well as Delta’s Silver, Gold, and Platinum Medallion. The biggest loss will be for Delta Diamond Medallion, though, who will no longer get a membership for free; they’ll pay $129, just like United’s Premier 1Ks.Above that, Delta 360 and United Global Services still get a courtesy membership — a lucky bunch.Amex cardholders, rise upIn February, CLEAR renewed its “multi-year partnership” with American Express, which offers CLEAR+ as a benefit on products such as the American Express® Green Card, American Express Platinum Card®, or the Business Platinum Card® from American Express. (Rates and fees apply.)It is, without a doubt, the “cheapest” way to get a Clear Plus membership. And if you have a CLEAR+ Family plan, you can stack it with airline status to save on additional family members.American Express has historically raised the cash value of the benefit to cover the full price of CLEAR+. We reached out to American Express to hear if this would be the case for this price increase, as it has been in the past. A representative for Amex shared:”Starting July 1, 2026, eligible American Express Card Members can receive up to $219 in statement credits per calendar year (up from $209) when they use their eligible Card to purchase an annual CLEAR+ Membership. The benefit will also be renamed the $219 CLEAR+ Credit. Terms apply.”How has Clear Secure been performing on markets?CLEAR Secure ($YOU), the company that operates CLEAR’s expedited airport security operations and a sprawling online biometrics-based security business, has doubled over the last 12 months on Wall Street.That growth has come amid the launch of its new eGates, which have opened up a new, faster line for the company’s airport travelers. It also comes as CLEAR continues to push into new enterprise functions such as identity and biometric verification.Its recent ascent has pushed the firm back to all-time highs, with a valuation of roughly $6 billion.Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment maybe required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visitamericanexpress.com to learn more.

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Packages aren’t the only thing Amazon.com is delivering: The company is now sending engineers directly to clients in order to bolster artificial-intelligence adoption.

James joined the Lakers in 2018 on a four-year, $153.3 million contract.

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The 41-year-old legend has informed the Lakers he will not re-sign with them and will enter free agency.

Still, after decades of mere rhetoric, Israel’s utility as a land-based American aircraft carrier has finally been put to the test.