SpaceX on Thursday raised $75 billion in its IPO, valuing Elon Musk's company at around $1.77 trillion.
Why it matters: This is the largest U.S. IPO ever, at least until Anthropic and OpenAI go public later this year, and makes SpaceX one of the world's most valuable companies.
SpaceX's projected $1.77 trillion market cap would nearly equal the combined value of the 29 largest U.S. IPOs since 2000, adjusted for inflation, which together are worth $1.76 trillion in today's dollars.
Why it matters: The bar is already incredibly high for what's on track to be the largest IPO in history, which could become a critical test of investor demand ahead of an expected wave of AI IPOs.
Kit, the creator-focused email marketing platform, has opened a 5,000-square-foot studio in New York where creators can record content, collaborate and attend events, CEO Nathan Barry exclusively tells Axios.
Why it matters: Community has emerged as a differentiator for creator economy companies as AI makes it easier for creators to work independently and as the platforms reach feature parity.
Prometheus, the industrial AI startup led by Jeff Bezos and former Google exec Vik Bajaj, today will announce that it's raised $12 billion in Series B funding at a $41 billion valuation.
Why it matters: It's a massive bet to rearchitect how physical things are made, from jet engines to medical devices to consumer electronics.
The colossal sums of money being spent on building out AI data centers can still put investors on edge. Oracle's results are the latest example of that.
Why it matters: Investors are increasingly antsy about seeing at least some indication that the hundreds of billions of dollars now being spent on data centers will eventually turn into profitable investments. Oracle's results late Wednesday didn't offer them much.
In the hyperscaler's fourth fiscal quarter, which ended May 31, the company spent a higher-than-expected $16.5 billion on capital expenditures, eating deeply into the company's — admittedly — fast-growing revenues.
If you think buying a stock on the first day it trades is risky, check out leveraged ETFs: There are about a dozen tied to SpaceX that are teed up to launch in the wake of the company's expected stock market debut on Friday.
Why it matters: It's an extreme example of the risk-maxxing mindset that's swept through the formerly staid world of exchange-traded funds — and through the investing culture writ large with the rise of prediction markets and other kinds of gambling.
AI startup Sierra is partnering with Kraken, the dominant utilities software platform, to integrate customer support in the software it sells around the world, the companies shared first with Axios.
Why it matters: The move takes Sierra, which specializes in building customer support agents for retail, financial services and healthcare, deeper into the software layer for energy companies.
Google is committing $50 million to help train more than 300,000 skilled trade workers across the U.S.
Why it matters: America is facing a shortage in the exact workers needed for critical AI infrastructure projects. Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI and now Google are all investing in potential solutions to bridge that gap.
Elon Musk is on the verge of financial immortality: The world's richest man — and potentially its first trillionaire — has built a sovereign corporate kingdom that is too systemic to fail.
And yet, on the eve of SpaceX's monster IPO, its CEO was hunkered down in his digital fiefdom stoking far-right culture wars with an impunity unmatched in modern corporate history.
Why it matters: Musk's years in the public eye, marked by serial controversy and an accelerating embrace of white identitarian politics, have inured investors to conduct that would be disqualifying for almost any other CEO.
