The myth of bartering AI stock for real estate

In a recent listing (opens in new tab) for an apartment in Duboce Triangle, a seller offered to knock off a couple of million dollars in exchange for OpenAI or Anthropic stock. Over in Mill Valley, a real estate investor sought out Anthropic employees willing to trade their shares for his $8 million compound.   

While it may sound like a clever shortcut for employees — leveraging equity in AI companies before they go public to get ahead in a brutal housing market — local real estate and wealth management professionals say these barter deals are not happening. 

“We’re not seeing people actually offering stock,” said Blakely Hull, a Bay Area real estate broker. “Sure, there’s anomalies and exceptions to every rule, but by and large, we are seeing the majority of offers actually still financed.”…Read Full Article

Ken Anderson
SpaceX’s plan: Put all the data centers in space, then profit

The world’s most valuable companies are almost impossible to avoid. One makes your iPhone. One delivers packages to your door. One built the Windows operating system running in workplaces worldwide, while another makes chips powering countless computers and devices. There’s the firm behind a scrappy search engine you may have heard of: Google.

And then, there’s SpaceX — Elon Musk’s money-losing rocket start-up that has soared into the orbit of all of those tech juggernauts with a fleet of fantastical plans instead of ubiquitous products. With a more than $2.4 trillion valuation as of Thursday, SpaceX is the world’s sixth-most-valuable company…Read Full Article

Ken Anderson
SpaceX IPO bets $2 trillion on Musk's ambitious rockets-to-AI vision

Summary

  • SpaceX IPO filing reveals $4.28 billion quarterly loss

  • Analysts, fund managers broadly bullish, citing Musk's track record and Starlink's revenue

  • Starship delays or cost overruns could threaten AI, satellite expansion and overall growth

May 21 (Reuters) - Investors buying into SpaceX's nearly $2 trillion IPO are making a high-stakes wager that CEO Elon Musk can turn a fast-growing satellite business into something far bigger, using an unproven rocket ​to unlock an ambitious push into AI.

Musk has grown SpaceX into the world's largest rocket business by launching thousands of Starlink internet satellites and pioneering reusable rockets ‌that have transformed the economics of space…Read Full Article

Ken Anderson
The Cerebras IPO is a bellwether for AI startups

AI chipmaker Cerebras stock slid in early trading Friday, after soaring 68% in its public debut Thursday sending a strong signal as the first of many AI company initial public offerings this year.

Meanwhile Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Apple’s (AAPL) Tim Cook, and Tesla’s (TSLA) Elon Musk are in China alongside President Trump for his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Xi told the CEOs and others that China will “open wider” to US businesses…Watch Full Video

Ken Anderson
Venture secondaries just crossed $112 billion—right before three mega-IPOs change everything. And for the first time, retail investors are invited.

The US venture secondary market just reached an annualized value of $112.2 billion and surpassed public listings. It is a milestone worth celebrating, but one that won’t last long.

The same three companies that drove much of the secondary market’s explosive growth are now preparing to go public. What happens to a $112 billion market when its most valuable constituents leave?

In this note, we size the concentration risk posed by SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic’s mega-IPOs to venture secondaries, especially as the top 20 names account for 81.1% of secondary trading value, according to Hiive. When these companies go public, their returns will be held in lockup, then directed toward addressing venture’s four-year distribution deficit before any capital meaningfully recycles back into secondaries. The vacancy will be real, and the recovery will take time…Read Full Article

Ken Anderson
Anthropic has surged to a trillion-dollar valuation on secondary markets, overtaking OpenAI

Desperate buyers are in a race to secure a dwindling supply of secondary shares in Anthropic, driving the AI company's valuation on some sites to $1 trillion, a price that would have seemed unthinkable even a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, traders Business Insider spoke with are seeing slumping demand for OpenAI, which is now trading at a discount to Anthropic, despite OpenAI being valued at $852 billion, more than twice Anthropic's valuation in their most recent funding rounds.

Anthropic's valuation now hovers at around $1 trillion on Forge Global, a leading private marketplace exchange, its CEO Kelly Rodriques told Business Insider. OpenAI's valuation on the platform is $880 billion, a slight uptick from its March funding round…Read Full Article

Ken Anderson
IPO Market Revs Back Up Ahead of Mega Listings

Greg Martin, managing director of private markets at Rainmaker Securities, discusses the signs of life the IPO market is showing and what impact the expectations of large listings from Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX are having on investors. Martin speaks with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow on “Bloomberg Tech.”

Watch Full Video

Ken Anderson
SpaceX Is Going Public. Why a Tesla Merger Could Be Musk's Real Endgame

SpaceX’s initial public offering may be the largest IPO ever, but it might just be a prelude to the largest merger ever—a combination of Tesla with Elon Musk’s space venture.

On April 1, SpaceX reportedly filed confidentially for an IPO. It’s likely to raise $75 billion, more than double the $29 billion Saudi Aramco raised in 2019, and three times the $25 billion Alibaba Group Holding raised in 2014. Its valuation could come in close to $2 trillion, immediately making the company the sixth-most valuable in the U.S. Not bad for a venture that was worth only $350 billion a year ago and was founded by a 30-year-old who thought it was dumb to dispose of rockets as if they were plastic straws…Read Full Article

Ken Anderson
How the math works on a $1.75 trillion SpaceX valuation
  • SpaceX would be sixth-largest US-listed firm at IPO valuation

  • Starlink underpins majority of SpaceX's revenue

  • Debate centers on which publicly traded firms are truly comparable, if any

April 8 (Reuters) - Elon Musk’s SpaceX is seeking a $1.75 trillion valuation in its forthcoming initial public offering. How far into the stratosphere is that?

Going by common Wall Street metrics, the answer is, way out there. SpaceX would immediately become the sixth most-valuable publicly listed U.S. firm, worth more ​than the likes of Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab, which has been publicly listed for more than a decade, and Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), opens new tab, a company older than SpaceX founder Elon Musk…Read Full Article

Ken Anderson
What The Q1 2026 Secondary Rankings Reveal

Every quarter, Setter Capital, a secondary advisory firm that has completed more than $30 billion in private market transactions since 2006, surveys hundreds of investors to rank the 30 most sought-after startup shares on the secondary market. The resulting “Setter 30” list is a map of private market conviction: which companies investors want so badly they will pay a premium to buy someone else’s stake, rather than wait for a primary round or a public listing. The Q1 2026 edition carries a set of signals that anyone tracking venture capital or the broader technology market may be noticing already.

Taken together, the data points to a secondary market that has grown structurally more important, is concentrating around a smaller number of very large bets, and is beginning to behave less like a niche liquidity mechanism and more like a parallel exchange…Read Full Article

Ken Anderson
SpaceX's IPO could supercharge the entire space industry

SpaceX's (SPAX.PVT) IPO filing last week set the stage for what could be the largest IPO in history at a target valuation north of $2 trillion. It could also provide a big boost beyond Elon Musk's own rocket company.

Shares of Rocket Lab (RKLB) surged roughly 10%; Planet Labs (PL) jumped more than 10%, and AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) climbed even more on the news. The market's reaction provided something of  a confirmation that a SpaceX public listing won't just benefit SpaceX shareholders…Read Full Article and Watch Video

Ken Anderson
Anthropic is having a moment in the private markets; SpaceX could spoil the party

Glen Anderson has been brokering trades in private company shares since 2010, back when the number of institutional investors focused on the late-stage private market could be counted on two hands. Today, he says, there are thousands.

As president of the investment bank Rainmaker Securities, whose focus includes private securities markets — it facilitates transactions in roughly 1,000 stocks — Anderson has a front-row seat to one of the most nail-biting moments in the history of the secondary market. And right now, he suggests, the narrative has three main characters: Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX…Read Full Article

Ken Anderson
Why the frenzy to buy Anduril shares is like buying Taylor Swift tickets
  • Buyers have been willing to pay a premium of up to 40% to buy Anduril shares.

  • The steep markup reflects a two-tiered class for accessing stock in the hottest startups.

  • Data from Caplight highlights a supply imbalance, with buyer demand surging to 97% while sellers' demand is at 3%.

Anduril hasn't even finalized its next funding round, and investors are already eager to pay up like it's a sold-out concert. As marquee venture firms Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz line up to back the defense tech startup at a reported $60 billion valuation, others shut out of the deal are scrambling to buy shares on secondary markets at steep premiums…Read Ful Article

Ken Anderson
Elon Musk wants to be a trillionaire - here's how SpaceX may get him there.

Key Points

  • Elon Musk’s net worth soared past $800 billion this week after he merged SpaceX with xAI in a deal that valued the combined entity at $1.25 trillion.

  • For Musk to become the world’s first trillionaire, SpaceX would have to reach $1.6 trillion in value, assuming Tesla’s stock price stays flat.

  • With Tesla’s brand value and core auto sales in decline, and its long-promised robotaxis and humanoid robots still in development, the company’s stock price is down about 9% this year.

Elon Musk’s journey to becoming the world’s first trillionaire will likely be powered by rockets rather than cars, as SpaceX now accounts for nearly two-thirds of the Tesla CEO’s wealth…Read Full Article


Ken Anderson
Eager for an OpenAI or Anthropic IPO? Then Trump’s Fed pick is good news

Young AI startups looking to tap the public markets still won’t have an easy path, as they will need to prepare for more detailed financial disclosures at a time when both companies are burning cash, Greg Martin, managing director at Rainmaker Securities, told MarketWatch.

“They’ll have to manage their negative cash flow,” Martin said. OpenAI in particular “needs to clarify their specific position in the market, and have a better plan to get to a profitable position sooner.”…Read Full Article

Ken Anderson
SpaceX is coming to the public markets, and secondaries are already on fire

Watch Full Video...

SpaceX is reportedly lining up four major Wall Street banks for a 2026 IPO that could provide the reset the market needs. 

The company just completed a tender offer at an $800 billion valuation, and secondary market demand is through the roof. If SpaceX goes public anywhere near its rumored $1.5 trillion valuation, it could trigger an IPO cascade for other late-stage unicorns like OpenAI, Stripe, and Databricks. 

Watch as Equity host Rebecca Bellan chats with Greg Martin, Managing Director at Rainmaker Securities, about why this IPO feels different, how tech employees are cashing out through secondary markets before companies go public, and what investors are actually looking for in pre-IPO shares. 

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Ken Anderson
Scale AI’s life after Meta deal has been rocky, but CFO insists it’s not a ‘zombie company’
  • Five months after Scale AI’s high-profile founder joined Meta in a blockbuster deal, the startup’s CFO is trying to show that the company remains on a growth trajectory.

  • “People mischaracterize this deal as some sort of acquihire or some sort of licensing deal, which is not true,” said Dennis Cinelli in his first public interview after joining Scale as CFO in 2022.

  • Cinelli said Scale’s data business has grown every month since the Meta deal.

Read Full Article

Ken Anderson