North Korea (DPRK) is now using remote workers from third countries, including Iran and Lebanon, to aid its efforts to infiltrate US companies and obtain money to fund its weapons programs, NBC reported on Friday.

An alert issued in July by the US government and several foreign agencies said North Korean IT workers “seek out contracts with the intent of remitting their salaries to their parent North Korean agencies. They also pose an insider threat to companies and are involved in data exfiltration, cryptocurrency theft, and theft of sensitive information.”

As the US and other governments have moved to counter North Korea’s efforts, the DPRK has turned increasingly to third-country IT workers to pass job interviews, the report said. After work contracts are obtained, the positions are usually taken over by North Korean operatives.

NBC reported that foreign IT workers had been scouted on LinkedIn, with some offered $500 monthly in cryptocurrency to work part-time as “interview associates.”

Related: Consensys unknowingly outsourced developer work to North Korean

The DPRK’s increasingly sophisticated tactics may be meeting with some success.

Cointelegraph reported in May, citing cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, that North Korean state-affiliated hackers and threat actors were responsible for more than $2 billion in crypto losses in 2025, a 51% year-on-year increase.

The Bank of Korea estimates North Korea’s GDP increased 3.5% in 2025 in spite of global sanctions.

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Anthropic is reportedly in early-stage discussions with Nvidia over a potentially massive funding round that could rival the largest IPOs in history, according to Reuters. The talks include the possibility of Nvidia investing about $10 billion, Reuters said on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Reuters also reported that Anthropic may be aiming to raise up to $100 billion in the offering, a figure that—if realized—could place the company’s valuation around $2 trillion. Negotiations are still ongoing and could change, the people said, with both sides remaining tight-lipped as talks remain confidential.

Key takeaways

• Reuters reports Anthropic is discussing a deal with Nvidia that could include a roughly $10 billion investment.
• The potential IPO fundraising target discussed by Reuters could reach as much as $100 billion, implying a valuation near $2 trillion.
• If structured as an early backer arrangement, Nvidia’s involvement would both support the offering and deepen its relationship with an important customer.
• Broader AI competition is increasingly spanning chips, model ecosystems, and developer tooling—areas where Nvidia is already expanding.

Why Nvidia’s potential role matters

While IPO participation can be purely financial, Nvidia’s reported interest would likely carry strategic weight. Reuters said Nvidia could act as an early strategic backer—an approach that often helps issuers secure stronger investor confidence, potentially smoothing the path for a large-scale listing.

From Nvidia’s perspective, Anthropic is a high-profile AI customer. Reuters’ reporting suggests the discussions could be a way for Nvidia to both support a major capital raise and strengthen commercial ties with a company viewed as central to frontier AI development.

A fundraising goal that would reshape the IPO landscape

Reuters described the potential size of the offering as extraordinary: up to $100 billion, with a possible valuation of about $2 trillion for Anthropic. Whether that scale is achievable depends on market conditions and the final structure of the deal, including investor demand and how much of the funding is actually raised through new shares versus other components of the transaction.

Still, the reported numbers highlight how quickly the market is adjusting to “mega-round” expectations around leading AI firms. Anthropic—positioned as a major player in frontier models—would be entering a public market environment where investor appetite for AI-related exposure is already shaped by years of capital inflows and competition for computing resources.

Context: Nvidia’s push across the AI stack

The Nvidia-Anthropic story arrives after Nvidia moved to broaden its influence beyond hardware. Earlier this month, Cointelegraph reported that Nvidia agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, a deal intended to expand Nvidia’s reach into AI software and the tools developers use to build and deploy models.

Cointelegraph noted that Hugging Face serves more than 18 million developers and hosts over three million models, quoting Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s remarks. The acquisition, Cointelegraph reported, would give Nvidia control of a major platform for AI models as companies increasingly compete across chips, software, and developer ecosystems.

That background matters because a potential Nvidia backer role in Anthropic could be seen as another step in the same broader strategy: linking foundational compute (chips), model development and deployment infrastructure (model and developer platforms), and high-impact frontier model providers.

Deals around compute capacity underscore the demand

Nvidia’s potential involvement with Anthropic also fits into a larger pattern of AI-related infrastructure contracting. Cointelegraph previously reported that Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms secured a 20-year agreement to supply 191 megawatts of capacity from its Rockdale, Texas, campus to a “leading frontier AI” company.

Cointelegraph said the customer was Anthropic, and cited Bloomberg’s reporting that the deal was valued at about $9 billion, again referencing people familiar with the matter. Agreements like this reflect how aggressively AI builders and compute providers are trying to lock in long-duration supply as demand for processing power continues to rise.

In that context, a potential IPO of Anthropic at a valuation near $2 trillion would not just be a financial event—it would be one of the clearest public signals yet about how much capital the market believes frontier AI companies need and how seriously investors are pricing them.

For now, the key unknown is how these negotiations resolve: Reuters’ reporting leaves open both the final fundraising amount and whether Nvidia’s role materializes in the way described. Investors and observers will want to watch for confirmation from the companies, more detailed deal terms, and how market appetite for large AI IPOs evolves as discussions move from talks to filings.

Ben Delo, a British crypto billionaire, gave 36 million pounds ($49 million) to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in the biggest donation ever made to a British political party, the DPA and other media reported on Saturday.

Delo, who co-founded the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange, said he had given the money to ensure a “fair fight” at the polls.

Farage said: “I am honored and humbled that Ben Delo has shown such confidence in Reform. … Ben knows that we are the only party that can turn the country around and reverse Britain’s decline.”

Delo was previously the second-biggest donor to Reform UK behind billionaire Christopher Harborne, who gave 9 million pounds to the party last August.

Cointelegraph reported last month that Farage was under investigation after receiving millions of dollars’ worth of donations and gifts from two figures tied to the crypto industry: Harborne and George Cottrell.

Related: UK politicians mull permanent crypto donation ban in wake of Nigel Farage scandal

The UK lawmaker resigned his position as a member of Parliament in July amid the crypto scandal, triggering a controversial by-election that Farage won with 63% of the vote, ahead of satirical candidate Count Binface.

The contributions tied to the crypto industry have raised questions from many lawmakers about the influence of digital assets on UK politics.

In July, Labour MPs were reportedly considering that a moratorium on crypto donations announced in March, pending legislation, be made permanent in response to what Farage called “gifts” from Harborne and Cottrell.

The Telegraph newspaper said the 36 million pound donation represented 1 million pounds each month until a general election in 2029, but Delo made the entire payment up front to prevent it from being blocked.

Cointelegraph previously reported that Delo was one of three BitMEX co-founders who pleaded guilty to federal charges in the US related to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.

While he agreed to pay a $10 million fine in 2022, Delo did not serve time in prison. He and his colleagues Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed received a pardon from US President Donald Trump in March 2025.

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Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.