Tesla CEO Elon Musk, it seems, never sleeps. Neither can his investors.
Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported that SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket company, had invested $2 billion in xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company. Separately, The Financial Times reported that xAI was seeking a $200 billion valuation in a new capital raise.
The SpaceX investment likely relates to changes around the time xAI merged with X, Elon Musk's social media company. The $200 billion valuation is likely a separate transaction.
Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, didn't respond to a request for comment. Musk, however, called the capital raise reference by the FT "false," adding xAI has "plenty of capital."…Read Full Article
Stocks of newly-public companies are surging in their first sessions at the fastest pace in three and a half years, enthralling traders and heating up the market for US first-time share sales.
Drone maker Airo Group Holdings Inc. ended Friday with a gain of 140%, a day after raising $60 million in its initial public offering, and coming barely a week after stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group Inc. surged 168.5% immediately following its $1.2 billion IPO.
With conservative cable channel Newsmax Inc.’s wild 735% opening gain in March, following its $75 million offering, three companies raising at least $50 million on US exchanges this year have more than doubled on their first trading day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the most since nine US-listed debutantes managed the feat in 2021’s IPO boom.
These spectacles may be thrilling to watch, but history shows extreme day-one pops rarely reward investors in the long run…Read Full Article
Initial public offering (IPO) activity is picking up despite tariff concerns, with public debuts from names like Circle Internet Group (CRCL) and CoreWeave (CRWV).
Greg Martin, Rainmaker Securities managing director, joins Asking for a Trend to discuss why companies are rushing to go public now.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Asking for a Trend here.
Who wants to be a Martian? It's a question that might need answering in your lifetime.
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk outlined his plans to make life multi-planetary by sending Earthlings to Mars. The scale of his ambitions is mind-blowing.
Over the weekend, Musk presented to SpaceX employees at Starbase, Texas. (Starbase is a literal city run by SpaceX.) The goal of the talk was to describe the steps required to bring SpaceX technology and, ultimately, humans to Mars. The talk also provided investors with a fascinating glimpse into Musk's space company….Read Full Article
The window for tech IPOs may be sneaking back open after slamming shut during Trump tariff market turmoil earlier this spring.
Shares of Hinge Health (HNGE) were trading nearly 4% higher Friday morning, after gaining 17% on the health-tech company's stock market debut. Also debuting Thursday was MNTN (MNTN) an advertising technology company that saw its stock rocket more than 60% higher in from its IPO price of 16. MNTN stock was up more than 10% at 29.24 in recent action on the stock market today.
The successful debuts come a week after crypto and stock trading platform eToro Group (ETOR) went public in an upsized offering shares are ahead 28% from the company's first-day closing price.
"The strong aftermarket performance of these and other recent tech IPOs, like CoreWeave (CRWV), ServiceTitan (TTAN), Rubrik (RBRK), and Reddit (RDDT), indicate investor appetite for tech IPOs, especially for companies with solid financials and growth prospects," Greg Martin, managing director at Rainmaker Securities, told IBD in an email…Read Full Article
Chime's initial public offering, filed this week, is likely to test the waters for other fintechs considering going public within the next year.
"We are excited to see Chime tap the public markets at a pivotal moment after weathering the capital markets deep freeze that has paralyzed fintech IPOs," Pitchbook senior analyst Rudy Yang said. "The timing is undoubtedly bold, but it is a strategic play that balances opportunity with calculated risk. A strong reception may help catalyze a long-awaited revival in fintech liquidity."
This would be a significant breakthrough given the drop in fintech venture capital exit value from IPOs from $222.4 billion in 2021 to $29.1 billion across the subsequent three years and through the first quarter of 2025, Yang said.…Read Full Article
Crypto broker Coinbase is slated to join the S&P 500 on Monday as the sector gains favor while trading platform eToro’s IPO hits pay dirt and Chime.. Read Full Article
Chad Gracia, CEO of Gracia Group and Registered Rep at Rainmaker Securities, breaks down ten common red flags new investors make in private securities - and how to avoid them…Read Full Article
A start-up is aiming to do to Lockheed Martin what Tesla did to Ford Motor. It might disrupt the entire defense business along the way.
Anduril, founded in 2017 and now valued at more than $30 billion, aims to become a prime defense contractor, building weapons systems using advanced, commercially available technology quickly and at scale, rather than bidding on cost-plus contracts for exquisitely designed, expensive, low-volume systems as traditional defense companies do. It seeks to put autonomy and software at the core of its products, as Tesla has done in upending the auto industry.
Anduril’s “job is to compress the [defense] market,” says Greg Martin, managing director at the private market exchange Rainmaker Securities. “Take the defense budget from $900 billion to $500 billion without losing lethality.”..Read Full Article
Greg Martin, co-founder of Rainmaker Securities, discusses the pause in big name IPOs and what that means for liquidity pressure. He joins Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow on “Bloomberg Technology." (Source: Bloomberg)
Klarna's listing is the most-anticipated fintech IPO in years and is widely seen as a bellwether for the rest of the sector.
Why it matters: The pending IPO could encourage a growing push toward profitability for fintechs looking to go public.
The big picture: Many in the industry see Klarna as an ideal candidate to open the IPO window.
"In any normal historical context, Klarna would already be public. It's a scale player [with] over $100 billion in GMV, over $2 billion in revenue, and profitable," says Rainmaker Securities managing director Greg Martin.
Follow the money: "If Klarna does well, we'll see Chime and Revolut right behind it," Martin says… Read Full Article
How do you solve a problem like Twitter? If you’re Elon Musk, you sell X to xAI.
He did OK on the sale.
In a Friday evening tweet on X, Elon Musk wrote that xAI had acquired X for $33 billion, or “$45 B less $12B debt.”…Read Full Article
Early investors in Anduril have been getting a lot of reachouts from people clamoring to snap up their shares.
Jackson Moses, founder and managing partner of defense-focused firm Silent Ventures, "started getting pinged left and right" about two years ago on the secondary market to sell his interest in Anduril, which he first invested in in 2021. His phone started ringing more over the past year and rang even more in the past few months.
"The last six months have been pretty crazy," he told BI. "Every reputable family office and institution wants to know, how can I buy this?"…Read Full Article
Greg Martin considers Klarna a bellwether for the IPO market restarting. “A company like Klarna would historically already be public,” he says. He thinks it will perform well on its debut and expects it to price conservatively, but “the bar is high” among IPO investors.
Swedish fintech company Klarna has filed paperwork to go public in the United States, on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker KLAR. Rainmaker Securities managing director Greg Martin joins Asking for a Trend to discuss the breaking news.
Klarna’s public listing got a bit closer on Friday as its prospectus filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission was made public…Read Full Article
As TikTok fights to keep its popular video app available in the US, investors in parent company ByteDance Ltd. are being forced to re-evaluate financial prospects for a business valued at more than $300 billion as recently as late last year.
Some of these American shareholders argue that, while a ban will take a near-term toll on their stakes, ByteDance's China business is the real driving force behind the lofty valuation and an eventual payday…Read Full Article
Elon Musk’s social-media platform has apparently made an incredible comeback. That’s a positive for Tesla investors in one crucial way.
Musk’s X, which was called Twitter when he bought it in Oct. 2022, is close to raising money at a valuation of $44 billion, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the deal.
X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The number represents a remarkable recovery. Musk bought the money-losing platform for about $44 billion. After slashing staff and losing advertisers, that valuation fell to less than $10 billion, based on estimates from Musk’s X co-investors…Read Full Article
Secondary buyers had little interest in X last year, but that has shifted recently, according to Rainmaker Securities.
Buyers have been willing to purchase shares at around the same price Elon Musk paid in 2022.
Banks led by Morgan Stanley have been offloading billions in X debt at face value.
In the last month and a half, Glen Anderson, CEO and co-founder of Rainmaker Securities, has started to see prospective buyers express increased interest in shares of X, formerly known as Twitter… Read Full Article