AI IPOs

Anthropic files for IPO before OpenAI amid race to the public markets for trillion-dollar startups

Anthropic said Monday it filed for an initial public offering, a surprise start to the race against OpenAI to be the next trillion-dollar AI startup to hit the public markets.

Just days ago, Anthropic announced that it is now valued at $965 billion, after raising a fresh $65 billion in funding to fuel the insatiable demand for its artificial intelligence products.

If Anthropic debuts at a $1 trillion value, it would immediately catapult it into the ranks of the most highly valued companies in the world and likely mark the second- or third-largest IPO ever, behind SpaceX and Saudi Aramco.

Space Tech

SpaceX and Google Are in Talks to Launch Data Centers in Orbit

Google is in talks with SpaceX for a rocket-launch deal as the search giant expands its own efforts to put orbital data centers in space, according to people familiar with the discussions.

A launch deal would put the two companies in partnership as they gear up to compete on orbital data centers, an unproven technology that SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk has said is the next frontier for his rocket company. Google is also in discussions about a potential deal with other rocket-launch companies, one of the people said.

The speculative technology has been at the center of SpaceX’s pitch to investors ahead of its planned public listing this summer, which is anticipated to be the largest IPO of all time. 

The SpaceX IPO and Data Centers in Space

Stratechery argues SpaceX’s potential IPO may resist traditional valuation logic: near-term financial models cannot fully justify the company’s implied upside.

The more strategic question is whether SpaceX becomes infrastructure for a new computing layer, with orbital data centers emerging as a plausible long-term demand driver.

For investors and tech strategists, the thesis reframes SpaceX from a launch provider into a platform enabling future AI, communications, and space-based industrial workloads at scale over time globally potentially.

Quantum Computing

Harvard Researchers: Quantum Computing Advancing Faster Than Expected

Harvard Quantum Initiative in Science and Engineering researchers report that advances in fault tolerance have accelerated quantum computing timelines by five to ten years, bringing early forms of large-scale systems potentially within reach by the end of the decade.

The progress has already produced commercial momentum, with startups including QuEra, LightsynQ (acquired by IonQ), and CavilinQ attracting funding and delivering early systems.

Researchers indicate that while quantum machines are becoming more feasible, identifying their most transformative applications and learning how to use them effectively remains an open challenge.

Wearable Devices

Like Apple Watch at start, Apple’s smart glasses plan will challenge the entire industry

Apple’s initial plan for smart glasses is to take on just about every eyewear manufacturer, smart and not, with design and just a little bit of iPhone integration.

The whole Apple Glass endeavor has focused mainly on the still-far-off augmented reality smart glasses. However, with a second version without AR expected to arrive in 2026 or 2027, Apple is trying to break into the wider glasses market.

According to Mark Gurman in Sunday’s “”Power On”” newsletter for Bloomberg, Apple isn’t going to try and attract just those who want smart glasses. It’s instead attempting to take on the overall glasses market.

Clean Tech

Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft are backing a new clean-tech push for AI data centers

Elemental Impact, a nonprofit investor, launched the Data Center Innovation Initiative on Wednesday with Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft as partners, aiming to accelerate the deployment of clean energy and materials technologies in data center environments.

Funding for individual projects will range from $500,000 to $5 million, with the initiative targeting as many as 10 startups before the end of 2027. Startups working in areas such as energy storage, low-carbon materials, advanced electrical systems, and industrial cooling are among those the initiative seeks to support. Validated solutions would then be candidates for broader deployment across energy and industrial sectors, with testing conducted at operating data centers or purpose-built demonstration facilities.

The initiative arrives as data centers face mounting public scrutiny over their strain on local power grids. Research published in Environmental Research Letters found data centers’ share of national power demand more than doubled between 2018 and 2023, and projected that wholesale electricity prices nationwide could be 6% to 29% higher by the end of the decade depending on the pace of growth.