$583B comp if @elonmusk colonizes Mars. A $28T TAM. Easter eggs pointing to a Tesla merger. @AmanVerjee read the 308-page @SpaceX S-1, so you don't have to. It's a big week. Full breakdown: [ tech news and vc ] 00:43 - AI holy trinity DGAF ⃤ 08:04 - @AnthropicAI profitable, $900B looks cheap 🤯 13:38 - @OpenAI rushes to IPO after courtroom win 🏃‍♂️‍➡️ 17:53 - @nvidia $82B print $80B buyback 💰🫲 22:20 - @mercury $200M Series D @ $5.2B 🏦 25:35 - US Govt = Quantum VC ⚛️ 29:05 - NPM sues Hiive over 2ndry plumbing 🪠 [ val corner: 308 page SpaceX S-1 ] 31:06 - SpaceX S-1 highlights 📸🔦 35:56 - $28T TAM includes Martians 🌎🌍🌏🌖✨ 37:00 - 3 core biz units: Connectivity, Space, AI 3️⃣ 47:05 - SpaceX-@Tesla merger? 🤔 50:10 - board members revealed @IraEhrenpreis @kimbal @AntonioGracias @Gwynne_Shotwell @LukeNosek @rglein @SteveJuvertson0 53:48 - unusual staggered lock-up period 🔐 1:01:00 - @davemcclure sings a whole new Mars to close the show 🎶

Every Financial Bubble in History Has 3 Things in Common ✅ @AmanVerjee breaks them down: "#1. The bubble happened in usually the richest country in the world and usually the most wealthy city. So whether it was London in 1845, New York in 1929, Tokyo in 1984. AI is happening kind of in Silicon Valley, if you will. Usually there's a lot of economic prosperity, and it's the richest country and the richest city. #2. There's a lot of wealth flowing into a large, homogenous segment of the population. #3. And then the last one is usually some version of easy money, loose financial conditions. It could be low interest rates, it could be an increase in the money supply. Those were the keys to when those bubbles happened and why they happened as big as they did." Aman sat down with @coldxman on @ConvoswColeman to talk about the biggest financial bubbles in history and what they mean for us today.

Anthropic vs OpenAI: Who Wins the AI IPO Race? Both companies have now confidentially filed for IPOs, but prediction markets still favor Anthropic going first. "If they want to go first, they'll get there first because they have the stronger offering." - @AmanVerjee Aman and @davemcclure weigh in on what makes Anthropic more likely to become the first blockbuster AI IPO. Check out the full discussion next week on Trading Places Podcast EP37!

🚀 Clara Vydyanath on where the money flows after the 2026 IPO summer: "SpaceX goes public, Anthropic goes public, potentially, right? OpenAI potentially goes public. And I think there's so much capital tied up in SPVs or directly under the cap tables that all that capital, when returned, has to flow somewhere... I do think when the capital sort of sloshes back out of Anthropic, out of SpaceX, out of OpenAI, it will, I believe, flood the next tier." — @davemcclure and @AmanVerjee with @ClaraVydyanath on @TradingVCs Podcast EP35

🛰️ CJ Gustafson and Dave McClure on data centers in space: "Assuming that people don't think data centers in space are a crazy idea, and it seems like in the last 18 months we've all come around to that being a possibility, now it's more just a question of when does it happen, at what scale does it happen, what cost structure is required to get there." — @davemcclure and @AmanVerjee with @cjgustafson on @TradingVCs Podcast CJ wants to invest in the space plumbers that have to service the data centers in space. 😂 This is a sneak peak from soon to be released EP37!

The @SpaceX @Google deal just rewrote the math for @elonmusk's approaching IPO. 🚀 $920 million/month deal with Google for AI compute on top of their $1.25 billion/month Anthropic deal. "$26 billion a year between just two customers. That's more than all of SpaceX's revenue last year... Their AI business, which really was nothing a year ago... now $32 billion in AI revenues on top of $15 billion to $20 billion for Starlink, on top of their Space Launch business. So most of the revenue comes from the AI business, and that's totally changed the game." — @AmanVerjee & @davemcclure with a sneak peak from EP37 of @TradingVCs Podcast

🚨 The CFO behind Elon Musk and Peter Thiel just revealed what actually built PayPal. Elon and Peter weren't reckless spenders. They were the most financially disciplined operators in Silicon Valley and their ex-CFO just confirmed it. "There was an intolerance of waste that I think every startup should have. And a lot of them have lost that in the era of free money." — @AmanVerjee, former PayPal FP&A Lead with @cjgustafson on Run the Numbers Podcast

Retail investors want access to the biggest private tech companies. SpaceX. OpenAI. Anthropic. Stripe. But what they often get isn’t direct access—it’s layered exposure through SPVs, intermediaries, and repackaged demand. So the real question is: What companies are investors actually missing? The answer is in the middle. The “secret stallions”—companies doing real revenue, real growth, still under the radar. @davemcclure discusses why the upside quietly lives outside the noise of the most crowded names. Check out Dave's full Secondary 101 discussion on Trading Places EP34!

What if @Tesla and @SpaceX eventually merge? Some investors think @elonmusk has already set the math up for it: • ~85% ownership of SpaceX • ~20% Tesla voting control If both companies merge at similar valuations, Elon could end up with ~51% ownership of the combined entity. @AmanVerjee and @davemcclure discuss why the mega-merger makes sense on Trading Places Podcast EP36.

The economics of space are changing FAST. Back in 1970, the Saturn V cost around $5,400 per kilogram to launch payload into space. Then came the Space Shuttle era: ➡️ Costs exploded to $50k–60k/kg ➡️ Even expendable rockets were still ~$18.5k/kg Then came the game changer: @SpaceX's Falcon 9. By 2020, launch costs dropped to roughly $2,700/kg. And if Starship works at scale? The cost could fall BELOW $100/kg. @AmanVerjee breaks down the cost of space launches and the massive opportunities cheaper space access could unlock. Check out the full discussion on Trading Places EP36 with Aman and @davemcclure!

After a SpaceX IPO, investors don’t “get out” all at once. There’s a structured cash-out timeline that controls when liquidity actually hits the market: • Day 0–180: Most shares locked (no selling) • ~Month 2 (post-Q2 earnings): First ~20% unlock • If price rallies: another ~10% may unlock • Months 3–5: Staggered ~7% releases every few weeks • Around month 6: Majority of shares become tradable • End of year: final unlock completes the cycle What does this mean for investors? Check out @AmanVerjee's full breakdown on Trading Places Podcast EP36 with @davemcclure!