One is positioning itself as the world’s new front door to AI; the other is a lock-pick so effective its creators are hiding it.

Meta reasserted itself in the artificial intelligence race Wednesday with the launch of its first new model since CEO Mark Zuckerberg poured billions into a major overhaul to catch rivals Google, OpenAI and Anthropic. The release came a day after Anthropic said it would severely limit the rollout of an advanced new model designed to excel at identifying software vulnerabilities because it would be a gift to the world’s hackers.

Open to the World vs. Close to the Vest

Meta’s new Muse Spark, developed by a lavishly compensated unit Zuckerberg assembled under wunderkind Scale AI cofounder Alexandr Wang, now powers Meta’s AI app and website in the US, with Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Meta smart glasses to follow in the coming weeks. Similar to Google’s Gemini model, it was “purpose-built for Meta’s products,” enabling the company to leverage its mass social media user base to expedite adoption. Meta is deliberately restraining expectations, highlighting “competitive performance” against ChatGPT, Gemini and xAI’s Grok. Meanwhile, it plans to put $115 billion to $135 billion toward capital investments including AI, nearly double last year’s tally, signaling its determination to become a leader in the space. Meta soared 6.5% on Wednesday, beating the S&P 500’s 2.5% bounce on positive news about the Iran war.

The splashy launch contrasted with Anthropic’s unusual announcement Tuesday that its advanced model, Claude Mythos Preview, would be distributed only to a few dozen companies, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and JPMorganChase, as part of its cybersecurity-oriented Project Glasswing. That’s undoubtedly for the best:

• Claude Mythos Preview was designed to detect and patch critical software vulnerabilities, securing digital infrastructure from AI exploitation before it’s too late. Anthropic said it has already identified thousands of vulnerabilities in critical software infrastructure, including a 27-year-old bug in the operating system OpenBSD that had gone unnoticed.
• Anthropic’s Mike Krieger told a conference in San Francisco that the model was “explicitly not releasing to the public,” and that the company plans to work with cybersecurity engineers and experts to use the model as a means of “arming them ahead of time.”

Partner Perks: When reports first circulated late last month about Mythos, some cybersecurity came under pressure over fears Anthropic would become a competitor. But JPMorgan analysts said Wednesday that CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks, both part of Project Glasswing, could benefit because they’re working closely with Anthropic on the new model. The bank affirmed its overweight ratings on both, with 12-month price targets of $475 for CrowdStrike and $200 for Palo Alto Networks, implying double-digit upsides for each.

Some companies sell oil, and some companies buy it. During the Iran war’s oil shock, they’re both taking a hit.

Delta, one of the largest US airlines, and oil giant ExxonMobil both admitted Tuesday that they’re expecting some bad news for their financial statements, thanks to soaring fuel prices after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz amid a war with the US and Israel. While President Donald Trump agreed to a two-week cease-fire with Iran on Tuesday, in exchange for safe passage through the key shipping channel, the month-long conflict has already eroded profit at travel and oil businesses around the world.

“We’ve never dealt with a maelstrom of different issues like we’re dealing with right now, thanks to the closure of the strait,” Tom Kloza, chief energy advisor for Gulf Oil, told The Daily Upside.

Riding It Out

Delta said Wednesday that its jet fuel bill for the current quarter will skyrocket by $2 billion from a year ago. Ahead of the busy travel season, the airline and its rivals are grappling with how much of that extra cost they can pass on to customers. On Tuesday, Delta and Southwest hiked the price of checked bag fees for domestic flights by $10, following United and JetBlue, which raised their fees the week before. Delta is also narrowing its capacity growth for now.

ExxonMobil, meanwhile, said it expects the war’s effects on operations in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to cut its global production by 6% in the first quarter compared to the previous quarter, according to a company filing.

While both companies’ warnings illustrate the impacts of a conflict that feels just about as unpredictable now as it did a month ago, they’re uniquely positioned to weather the storm:

• Delta is likely better off than its peers thanks largely to an oil refinery it bought in 2012, which the airline expects to provide a $300 million benefit this quarter.
• ExxonMobil has “so many assets that are beneficiaries of higher prices that that probably insulates them,” Kloza says. The company may take “a couple of little bruises” from Persian Gulf operations and shortages, but ultimately, “I can’t imagine them having a better backdrop,” he adds.

More Warning Signs: Phillips 66 is setting expectations, too. The energy company said in a filing Monday that its first-quarter earnings results were impacted by roughly $900 million in pre-tax mark-to-market losses due to the jump in commodity prices.

Next up in the Strait of Hormuz saga: crypto fees.

Iran will demand $1 per barrel of oil paid in crypto for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, an industry official told the Financial Times. Large tankers carry millions of barrels each, and as bitcoin’s price rises this week, that toll could become more costly.

Tankers will have to email details about their cargo to Iranian authorities, who’ll calculate the bill, said Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union. The toll system is meant to avoid tracing and confiscation under any global sanctions and to prevent weapons shipments.

Digital Assets During Wartime

Crypto has become a key monetary tool in times of war and unrest, when the encryption of digital assets can help countries circumvent sanctions. Russia turned to crypto when the traditional financial industry tried to cut it off from the global economy. Now, Iran’s crypto activity is spiking as it grapples with global sanctions:

• Iran’s crypto market climbed to a record of about $7.8 billion last year, Chainalysis estimates. In the fourth quarter, about half of crypto transactions were linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Central Bank of Iran, meanwhile, has accumulated more than $500 million worth of Tether’s dollar-backed stablecoin USDT, Elliptic found.
• Crypto activity in Iran surged after the US-Israel airstrikes in late February, with Chainalysis reporting more than $10 million was moved off exchanges within a few days. The outflows could be tied to individual Iranians moving their money from exchanges to personal wallets as a safety measure, but also to IRGC-linked users accessing funds for trades and money laundering.

Crude Intentions: Crypto fees in the Strait of Hormuz may be more convenient for Iran, but the process could slow any attempt to quickly clear the freight parking lot that is the Persian Gulf. The process of sending an email detailing a ship’s cargo, waiting for Iranian officials to tally the bill, and then paying crypto fees can only go so fast. Clearing the strait within the two-week ceasefire window was already a tall order.