Elon Musk made history this week with the launch of SpaceX’s IPO, the dawn of a new AI era in public stock markets. But, as with everything Musk, it’s hard to tell whether the era will be historic for the right reasons or the wrong ones.
The Nasdaq flotation of Musk’s chatbots-to-rockets company will be followed by the listing of large language model makers OpenAI and Anthropic. SpaceX alone could be worth $1.75tn. The trio’s total value could top $3.5tn.
The listings at last give ordinary shareholders a shot at the pot of gold at the end of the generative AI rainbow, after years when only wealthy private investors and funds have been able to buy direct stakes in hyperscaling start-ups. Soon, these private empires will have to submit to transparent reporting, analysts’ scrutiny, regulators’ attention and board directors’ challenges.