Daily Digest: Anthropic's credit rating revealed for first time, S.F. unemployment ticks down
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Story Highlights
- Anthropic receives highest junk credit rating.
- EDD releases new job numbers for San Francisco and the Bay Area.
- Waymo is expanding into Canada.
Happy Friday, Bay Area.
- Kicking off with politics, Elon Musk donated $158 million to Senate Republicans’ super PAC in September, the Wall Street Journal reports, adding that same amount of money was then immediately funneled to a group backing Republican Ken Paxton’s Senate race in Texas. Musk looks to be trying to aid the Republicans’ effort to defeat Democrat challenger James Talarico for a pivotal Senate seat in the state where he lives and does much of his business.
- Speaking of Musk, San Francisco International Airport's largest carrier, United Airlines, has debuted a Starlink Tracker tool to help customers identify flights with high-speed Wi-Fi. Read the full story.
- Turning to coffee talk, Ritual Coffee has finally opened its new Financial District cafe at California and Battery streets.
- Finally, Senior Reporter Ron Leuty has the deep dive on how the Golden State Warriors' longtime leader Steve Kerr is now thinking less like a coach and more like a CEO.
Here's the rest of the stats and stories at week's end.
New job numbers show local unemployment ticked down, but total jobs decreased
The unemployment rate in the San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City area in September stood at 4%, down from a revised 4.1% in August, and below the year-ago estimate of 4.2%, according to new data released Friday by the state's Employment Development Department. The unemployment rate was 4% in San Francisco County and 3.9% in San Mateo County. Between August and September, the total number of jobs in the San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City area decreased by 2,500 jobs to 1,130,400. Financial activities recorded the largest month-over-month decline. Jobs in information along with leisure and hospitality were also down. Farther south, the unemployment rate in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area was 4.2% in September, down from a revised 4.3% in August. In the East Bay, the unemployment rate in the Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley area stood at 4.7% in September, down from a revised 4.9% in August. Overall at the state level, employers shed 9,300 Jobs in September while the state's unemployment rate remained at 5.1%.
Anthropic credit rating revealed as highest junk tier
Anthropic's credit rating has surfaced for the first time with Kroll Bond Rating Agency assigning the San Francisco AI company a BB+ issuer rating in June — the highest speculative-grade tier, just one notch below investment grade, the Financial Times reports. The rating covers roughly $4.4 billion of subordinated debt within a $35 billion chip-financing package led by Apollo. Wall Street banks are preparing a $60 billion financing plan to help Anthropic secure more custom AI chips, according to the report. Anthropic's third-quarter revenue reached $16.8 billion, up 45% quarter-over-quarter. However, some investors have trimmed IPO valuation expectations from $2 trillion to $1.5 trillion, according to FT.
New conservation easements take 331 acres of land between Livermore and Dublin
Two new conservation easements secured by Tri-Valley Conservancy will permanently protected 331 acres of wildlife habitat and open space in Doolan Canyon and Springtown Preserve. The 131-acre Doolan Canyon property links nearly 1,500 acres between Dublin and Livermore, creating a wildlife corridor. In Springtown, an additional 200 acres expand the existing 40-acre preserve to protect North Livermore's alkali wetlands and the rare plants and animals that depend on them. “TVC is proud to add these open space lands to our more than 6,500 areas of protected lands in the Tri-Valley region,” Rebecca Spector, executive director of Tri-Valley Conservancy, said in a statement. “These lands are home to special species including California tiger salamanders and western burrowing owls, and connect larger habitat areas ensuring wildlife can travel safely across the region.”
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M&A Watch
Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) agreed to acquire Sequence, a U.K. revenue and payroll management platform, for around $200 million. Sequence backers include 645 Ventures, a16z, Firstminute Capital, Passion Capital, DIG Ventures, Mischief and Vor Capital.
People on the Move
Mountain View-based Nuro named Rajiv Bhatia as chief product officer to lead the company’s product strategy as it advances commercialization of its universal autonomy platform through partnerships and new vehicle programs. Most recently, Bhatia served as vice president of product at Roblox, and prior to that, VP of product for rideshare at Lyft.
Funding Watch
Stand, a San Francisco startup that insures homes in catastrophe-exposed regions, raised $70 million in Series C funding at a $1 billion valuation. Saga Ventures led, joined by Lowercarbon, Eclipse, Equal Ventures, Inspired Capital, Neotribe and Jackson Square Ventures.
Final thought …
President Donald Trump may have his own plans of restricting and restructuring trade with Canada, but that's not slowing down Waymo's push into to the Great White North. The Alphabet-owned robotaxi company said in a blog post that it is laying the groundwork for a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Toronto with the goal of welcoming its first riders in 2028. While Toronto doesn't typically get the amount of snowfall that other Canadian cities receive, its weather will no doubt test the limits of Waymo's fleet.
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2025 Bay Area electrical contracting revenue
| Rank | Prior Rank | Business name/Prior rank |
|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Rosendin Electric |
2 | 2 | Decker Electric Co. Inc. |
3 | 3 | McMillan Electric |