News & Updates
The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
US charges Google engineer with insider trading on Polymarket
NEW YORK, May 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has charged a Google software engineer with using insider information to rig bets tied to Google's most-searched list on prediction market Polymarket, earning $1.2 million in profits, according to a complaint unsealed on Wednesday. Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian citizen, allegedly used insider information to bet on long-shot candidates like indie pop musician D4vd, who appeared on Google's most-searched list after he was arrested and accused of murdering a teenage girl, according to the complaint. D4vd was the most-searched person of the year, according to Google statistics that were released on December 4, and Spagnuolo allegedly used insider information when betting on November 27 that D4vd would top the list. The bet was particularly profitable, because the markets placed a "near-zero probability" that D4vd would be the most-searched person on Google, according to the complaint. Spagnuolo, on an account called "AlphaRaccoon," also used insider information when placing other bets based on Google's most-searched list, according to the complaint. He made a bet in October that rapper Kendrick Lamar would top the list, at a time when Google's internal data showed that Lamar was on track to be the most-searched person of the year. Reuters could not immediately identify an attorney for Spagnuolo. Spagnuolo lives in Switzerland, according to the complaint, filed in the federal court in Manhattan. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said in a statement that prosecutors will pursue corporate insiders who seek to use confidential business information to turn a profit in prediction markets. "Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted," Clayton said. Google said in a statement that it is working with law enforcement and that using confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of company policy. Spagnuolo has been placed on leave, according to a Google spokesperson. Federal prosecutors in April charged a U.S. Army soldier with using classified information to place Polymarket bets on the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. (Reporting by Dietrich Knauth; Editing by Sonali Paul)
SpaceX's Starship rockets are grounded pending investigation after test flight - WXXV News 25
The Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday that the hourlong spaceflight resulted in a mishap based on the performance of the mega rocket's first-stage booster. Minutes after Starship blasted off from Texas on Friday, the booster separated as normal but engines conked out as it made its way back to Earth. Instead of a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, the booster came in hard. There were no reports of injury or property damage, according to the FAA, which will oversee the company's investigation. The spacecraft continued around the world, releasing 20 mock satellites before ending the mission as planned with a fiery splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The 407-foot (124-meter) rocket is SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's biggest and most powerful Starship yet, designed to carry crews to Mars. NASA is looking for it to land astronauts on the moon as soon as 2028 and help build a lunar base.
NY federal prosecutors charge Google engineer with making roughly $1.2 million in profits on Polymarket
* Federal prosecutors have charged a Google software engineer with making roughly $1.2 million by using insider information to bet on Polymarket. * The software engineer allegedly accessed confidential Google data about the most searched people of 2025 before placing bets on the prediction market. * Google said the software engineer has been placed on leave, and a lawyer for the man was not immediately identified on the court docket. AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor. Federal prosecutors in New York charged a Google software engineer with making roughly $1.2 million in profits from bets on the prediction market platform Polymarket by using confidential insider information he learned about the most searched people of 2025. Michele Spagnuolo, the Google software engineer, allegedly used an account called "AlphaRaccoon" to place multiple "yes" and "no" bets related to who would be the most searched person on Google, according to a criminal complaint. "Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google's confidential, commercially valuable internal data," authorities allege in the complaint. Spagnuolo is charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. He appeared in court Wednesday and was released on a $2.2 million bond with travel restrictions. Google said Spagunolo has been placed on leave. A lawyer for Spagunolo was not immediately identified on the court docket. "We're working with law enforcement on their investigation. The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies," a Google spokesperson told CNN. Spagnuolo is now the second person this year to face criminal charges alleging insider trading on prediction markets. Last month the US attorney's office for the Southern District of New York announced insider trading charges against a US special forces soldier for allegedly using his knowledge of the planned military capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to place bets on Polymarket ahead of it. The solider allegedly made over $400,000 in profits. He has pleaded not guilty. Authorities allege Spagnuolo used confidential internal Google data to place numerous bets about the most searched person. In one case, Spagnuolo placed a $381.12 bet "yes" that d4vd would rank in the most searched people of the year and $5 that d4vd would be the number one searched person on Google with an implied probability of "slightly higher than 0%," according to the complaint. Spagnuolo also bet $613,000 "no" that Pope Leo would be the most searched person and just over $500,000 that Donald Trump would not be the most searched person. When Google announced the most searched results, authorities allege, Spagnuolo made over $1.2 million in profits. CNN has a partnership with another prediction market, Kalshi, and uses its data to cover major events. Editorial employees are prohibited from participating in prediction markets.
Bitcoin Japan buys stake in Elon Musk's SpaceX via secondary market
In addition to its core aerospace operations, SpaceX has expanded its presence in AI infrastructure, AI compute infrastructure, and data center development. Bitcoin Japan Corporation announced today that it has invested in Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the aerospace and satellite communications company founded by Elon Musk that is anticipated to go public next month. The investment was made through BTCJPN US LLC, Bitcoin Japan's wholly owned US subsidiary, using a Special Purpose Vehicle managed by a US.-registered general partner. The transaction was completed on the private secondary market. The Tokyo-listed public company, which has undergone a major transformation from a legacy kimono and apparel wholesaler into a Bitcoin and AI-focused investment company, said the investment supports its strategy focused on digital assets, AI infrastructure, and the next-generation digital infrastructure sectors. "Following the extraordinary shareholders meeting, we have focused on strengthening Bitcoin Japan's corporate foundation and positioning the company for long-term participation in high-growth technology sectors," Phillip Lord, Representative Director and CEO of Bitcoin Japan Corporation, said in a statement. "The global structural trends surrounding AI infrastructure, AI compute infrastructure, data connectivity, and related digital infrastructure represent what we believe to be significant long-term investment opportunities. Through its launch business and Starlink communications network, SpaceX has established infrastructure assets on a global scale, and this investment aligns with our long-term strategic approach," he added. Formerly known as Marusho Hotta, the business traces its origins to 1861 and now believes Bitcoin treasury assets and AI-driven enterprises will define the next phase of corporate value creation in Japan. Bitcoin Japan will continue to assess technology and digital infrastructure investments in a disciplined and governance-focused framework, according to Lord.
US funds set aside cash as SpaceX and OpenAI prepare to go public
Large mutual funds and passive index funds are starting to set aside more cash and preparing to offload some of their existing holdings in large-cap stocks as they prepare to add upcoming blockbuster IPOs such as SpaceX and OpenAI to their portfolios. For passive funds, the potential inclusion of newly public companies could force them to sell down existing holdings in other large-cap stocks, John Flood, MD Global Banking & Markets, FICC & Equities at Goldman Sachs, said in a May 22 note to clients. "Investors are increasingly focused on the impact of potential large IPOs in the pipeline. Ahead of each of the four largest IPOs during the past few decades, US equity mutual funds increased their cash balances," said Flood. The latest moves from the biggest asset managers come as blue-chip indexes such as the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 are rolling out new rules expected to speed up the addition of newly listed megacap companies to the benchmarks. These new rules would most likely apply to the record-breaking IPO of SpaceX, which is targeting a valuation of about $1.75-trillion (R28.6-trillion) for its listing, which would make it the seventh-most valuable US company based on the latest share prices. AI market leaders OpenAI and Anthropic are also seeking to tap the public markets in the coming months and would most likely be eligible for fast entry into benchmarks, given their most recent valuations. Reuters reported in October OpenAI could seek to be valued at about $1-trillion (R16.3-trillion) or more at the time of its listing, while Anthropic is in talks to close a funding round that could value it at nearly $1-trillion. Analysts tracking large indexes said healthy retail investor cash balances are also likely to feed into the frenzy for new stock market listings. "The capacity and the willingness to invest into equities remains strong," Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note to clients on Tuesday, adding it was supported by "huge household cash balances accumulated during the pandemic". BENCHMARK INCLUSION BOOSTS LIQUIDITY Admission to benchmarks such as the Nasdaq 100 or the S&P 500 gives companies increased access to the deep-pocketed institutional investors who typically buy sizable positions for their own index funds, broadening their shareholder base and improving liquidity over time. For executives and early investors, that deeper liquidity could reduce the market impact of large sell orders once lockup periods expire, typically 90 to 180 days after an IPO. But it does not fully protect against a large wave of insider selling that could weigh on the share price. Flood said large IPOs that are fast-tracked into key indexes would carry small weights in the benchmarks at first, though the impact would grow as the company's float factor increases. In the Tuesday note, the Deutsche Bank analysts said: "Even the largest expected IPO amounts equal a little over 0.1% of the current S&P 500 market cap."
'xAI Is Half The Age Of Anthropic, OpenAI Is Four Times Older': Elon Musk Dares Critics To Wait 3 Years
Musk could merge SpaceX and Tesla as both companies have considerable shared resources and challenges In response to Xprize executive chairman Peter Diamandis' Tuesday X post that Elon Musk must control the best hardware instead of running the best AI model, while adding that Nvidia is the most valuable company and the hyperscale play works, the richest person on the planet said his company's AI will be 'great.' Elon Musk assured he won't ever give up on trying to make xAI the best. Musk also urged Diamandis and critics to wait three years from now to see where 'things stand,' while highlighting that SpaceX is only three years old. 'That's half the age of Anthropic and quarter the age of OpenAI,' he wrote on X. In a separate response on the social media platform he owns, Musk added: 'SpaceX had achieved nothing of note after 3 years and was written off as dead after 6 years with 3 consecutive launch failures... But you may have noticed that things are different now.' Musk's response comes in tandem with reports from multiple media outlets, including CNBC, that Musk reportedly seeks to merge Tesla with SpaceX, which was combined with xAI earlier this year. SpaceX is set for its initial public offering on 12th June and is aiming for a market valuation of $1.75 trillion to $2 trillion. Meanwhile, Tesla's market cap is currently around $1.6 trillion. Sources told CNBC that both the companies have shared resources, and Musk has informed colleagues about merging them. A Tesla employee told a media outlet that workers at the company have anticipated a similar transaction to eventually occur, while another worker said that shared challenges linked to energy and compute limitations result in frequent collaborations. 'Tesla has to run powerful AI systems inside a moving vehicle with tight limits on power, cooling, latency, reliability and cost,' said Tomasz Tunguz, venture capitalist at Theory Ventures. 'SpaceX has to think about compute in orbit, where radiation, thermal cycling, launch mass, power generation and heat rejection all become existential design constraints.' Tunguz added that a potential merger has captured the attention of Silicon Valley, but a deal of that scale would be highly complex. SpaceX has tied Musk's compensation rewards to achieving a $7.5 trillion market cap and colonising Mars with at least 1 million inhabitants. Elsewhere, Tesla shareholders approved a pay plan in 2025 comprising 12 tranches, with each payout linked with market cap gains and operational milestones. Investment firm Gerber Kawasaki CEO Ross Gerber had said earlier that a SpaceX-Tesla merger would enable Musk to run one big company and borrow much higher amounts of cash more easily to compete in the AI space with the likes of Google. Even legal experts believe a merger won't spark antitrust challenges but could trigger friction between the shareholders of the companies about which firm would be the parent company, stock swap mechanisms, and control over pricing.
Elon Musk's SpaceX Just Landed A Massive $2 Billion Space Force Deal To Build America's Military Satellit
SpaceX has secured a $2.29 billion contract from the U.S. Space Force entailing the construction of a high-speed satellite communications network, the Space Data Network (SDN) Backbone. The SDN Backbone is a resilient network architecture built to deliver high-capacity, low-latency data transport for the military, with the vendor expected to provide a fully operational prototype by the end of 2027. The SDN will play a key role in enabling near real-time data transfer between missile warning and tracking sensors and interceptors, forming a critical part of the Trump administration's Golden Dome missile defense initiative. "The SDN Backbone leverages the best of commercial innovation and delivers a strong foundation for the SDN mission set -- a huge benefit and enabler for our warfighters," said Space Force Colonel Ryan Frazier, the acting portfolio acquisition executive overseeing the program. The SDN Backbone will integrate with the Space Development Agency's Transport Layer to support secure data transport for current and future Department of Defense missions, while the Space Force plans to select more contractors for satellites and network components later this summer. SpaceX Strengthens Defense Role However, the Pentagon denied the report, and Elon Musk confirmed it. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Image via Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.
Prediction market prices 78% chance Anthropic will be worth more than Berkshire Hathaway by year end
Polymarket, the crypto-based prediction platform, is pricing in a 78% probability that Anthropic, the maker of the Claude family of artificial intelligence models, will reach a $1.5 trillion valuation by the end of 2026. That level would put it neck and neck with Meta and value it at roughly $500 billion more than Berkshire Hathaway. The market, which has attracted nearly $960,000 in trading volume since launching on 19 May, uses pricing data from Nasdaq Private Market to track Anthropic's implied private valuation, which currently sits at roughly $959 billion. The $1 trillion threshold is already considered a near certainty at 97%, with $1.25 trillion at 90%, suggesting the real debate among traders is whether Anthropic can close the gap on the world's most valuable listed companies before it even reaches the public market. The confidence reflects a remarkable trajectory over the past year. Anthropic closed a $30 billion Series G round in February 2026 at a $380 billion post-money valuation, led by GIC and Coatue with participation from Microsoft, Nvidia, Sequoia Capital and others. Just three months later, the company entered early talks to raise at least another $30 billion at a pre-money valuation exceeding $900 billion. On secondary platforms such as Forge Global, shares were already trading at implied valuations approaching $1 trillion by late April. The underlying business momentum is equally striking. Chief executive Dario Amodei disclosed in early May that annualised revenue had hit $30 billion, representing roughly 80 times growth in the first quarter of 2026 alone, driven by enterprise adoption and the rapid scaling of Claude Code, which reached $2.5 billion in annualised revenue by February. Anthropic is widely expected to pursue an initial public offering as early as October, with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley engaged as underwriters. Combined with the planned listings of SpaceX and OpenAI, the three companies represent more than $3 trillion in combined valuation, making 2026 the most concentrated AI IPO year on record. The Polymarket contracts are part of a broader push by the platform into private company milestones, giving retail speculators a way to express a view on companies they cannot yet buy on a public exchange. At current odds, the market is effectively saying the question is not whether Anthropic joins the trillion-dollar club, but whether it leapfrogs some of the most storied names in American capitalism on its way there.
Chart Of The Day: SpaceX Hype Sends Space Stocks Into Orbit
They're all headed to orbit because investors are looking to cash in on the halo impact of the SpaceX offering! I just wrote about how big the SpaceX (SPCX) Initial Public Offering will be. Now, let's talk about how big an impact the not-yet-launched IPO is having on MoneyShow -- an industry pioneer in investor education since 1981 -- is a global, financial media company, operating the world's leading investment and trading conferences. Each show brings together thousands of investors to attend workshops, presentations and seminars given by the nation's top financial experts. The company also offers exclusive seminars-at-sea, with the investment industry's leading partners. In addition, MoneyShow operates the award-winning, multimedia online community, Moneyshow.com and publishes free Investing and Trading newsletters, which provide individual investors with exclusive ongoing access to the latest investment and trading ideas from the nation's most respected and trusted financial newsletter advisors. Anticipation of the SpaceX IPO has fueled sharp short-term gains in ASTS, RKLB, and UFO as investors seek exposure to the space sector's momentum. A 'sell the news' reaction is possible, with risk of sharp pullbacks as investor attention fades, similar to past hype-driven sectors. Potential $80 billion in new SpaceX capital and a projected 78% increase in the US Space Force budget by 2027 could support ongoing sector growth.
Bitcoin Japan Corporation invests in SpaceX ahead of planned IPO
Tokyo-listed Bitcoin Japan Corporation has invested in SpaceX through a U.S.-based private secondary market transaction tied to digital infrastructure and AI expansion. According to a press release shared with crypto.news, Bitcoin Japan made the investment through BTCJPN US LLC, its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, using a Special Purpose Vehicle managed by a registered U.S. general partner. The company said the deal forms part of its investment activity focused on digital assets, AI compute infrastructure, satellite communications, and next-generation technology sectors. SpaceX currently operates launch systems and the Starlink satellite communications network, while also expanding into AI infrastructure, compute capacity, and data center operations. Bitcoin Japan said those sectors represent long-term opportunities tied to global demand for connectivity and computing infrastructure. Phillip Lord, representative director and CEO of Bitcoin Japan Corporation, said the company has concentrated on strengthening its corporate foundation after its extraordinary shareholders' meeting while positioning itself for participation in high-growth technology industries. "The global structural trends surrounding AI infrastructure, AI compute infrastructure, data connectivity, and related digital infrastructure represent what we believe to be significant long-term investment opportunities," Lord said. He added that SpaceX had already built global-scale infrastructure assets through its launch business and Starlink network, making the investment consistent with Bitcoin Japan's long-term strategy. Bitcoin Japan said its investment remains subject to the terms attached to the SPV and limited partnership agreements. The company also noted that because SpaceX is privately held, there is no guarantee regarding future liquidity events, valuation outcomes, or returns tied to the investment. Interest around SpaceX has continued to build across crypto and financial markets ahead of the company's expected Nasdaq debut. As previously reported by crypto.news, SEC filings from the company showed that SpaceX disclosed holdings of 18,712 Bitcoin, placing the company ahead of Tesla's reported Bitcoin balance of 11,509 BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries data cited in previous reports. Regulatory filings reviewed in May also indicated that SpaceX could seek a valuation between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion while targeting a capital raise of roughly $75 billion through its planned public listing. At the same time, crypto exchanges have started launching derivatives tied to SpaceX before any official IPO pricing has been finalized. Bitget and Bybit both introduced SPCXUSDT perpetual contracts in May, giving traders leveraged exposure to market expectations surrounding the listing without providing ownership of SpaceX shares. Beyond financial markets, crypto-linked figures have also become connected to the company's spaceflight projects. Chun Wang, co-founder of Bitcoin mining pool F2Pool, was recently named as part of a planned Starship flyby mission beyond the Earth-Moon system and past Mars.
Spain Joins Growing Global Crackdown on Polymarket and Kalshi Over Missing Gambling Licenses - Unchained
Spain's DGOJ ordered ISPs to block Polymarket and Kalshi for operating without gambling licenses, joining the Netherlands, Belgium, Indonesia, and India. Spain's Ministry of Consumer Rights temporarily banned Polymarket and Kalshi on Tuesday, ordering internet service providers to block access to both platforms after determining they were operating in the country without a gambling license. The decision, published in Spain's official state gazette, opened disciplinary proceedings against both U.S.-based companies. Spain's gambling regulator, the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), said the platforms breached local rules by lacking mandatory administrative authorization. The ministry cited the absence of safeguards for minors and self-excluded gamblers as aggravating factors, noting that licensed Spanish operators are required to implement self-exclusion registries, deposit limits, and age verification systems. ISPs must comply with the blocking order within roughly seven to ten days. The ban is expected to last three to four months while the investigation concludes. Spain is now the third European jurisdiction to act against the platforms this year, following the Netherlands in February and Belgium in March. The pattern suggests an emerging European consensus to treat prediction markets as gambling products subject to existing licensing frameworks rather than novel financial instruments. Outside Europe, both Indonesia blocked Polymarket calling it "online gambling in disguise" last week, and India moved to restrict the platform earlier in May. The international action comes as prediction markets face their most intense regulatory stretch since the 2024 U.S. election. Last week, the CFTC sued Minnesota hours after the state signed the nation's first explicit ban on prediction markets. The House Oversight Committee opened an insider trading probe into both Polymarket and Kalshi the same week, and Kalshi unveiled a new lobbying group called Americans for Fair Markets in response. President Trump publicly defended the CFTC's exclusive authority over prediction markets in a Truth Social post late Tuesday, calling state regulators "SCUM." The scale of what's at stake explains the regulatory attention. Kalshi recorded roughly $5.9 billion in trading volume over the past 30 days, while Polymarket processed about $3.8 billion, per DeFiLlama data. Combined, the two platforms account for nearly 88% of the roughly $11 billion in trading volume across the sector's top markets during the period. Bernstein projects sector volumes could reach $1 trillion by 2030. Neither Polymarket nor Kalshi had responded publicly to Spain's order at the time of writing.
Index Funds Are Hoarding Cash Ahead Of SpaceX And OpenAI IPOs
Index funds are built to follow a benchmark, not to make judgment calls. So when a new stock gets added to the S&P 500 or Nasdaq 100, they have to buy it, often by raising cash or trimming other large holdings. In a May 22nd note, Goldman Sachs, a global investment bank, said US equity mutual funds have historically increased cash balances ahead of the four biggest IPOs of the past few decades. Reuters reported that upcoming Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 rule.. changes are expected to speed up entry for newly listed megacaps, which could matter if companies like SpaceX (Reuters said it's targeting roughly a $1.75 trillion valuation) or AI firms OpenAI and Anthropic (each discussed by Reuters at around $1 trillion valuations) go public. Even if the dollars raised are small relative to the S&P 500's total size, "must-own" flows can still shift demand across a narrow part of the market at predictable moments. Why should I care? For markets: SpaceX's ~$1.75 trillion listing could create two separate flow squeezes. Faster benchmark entry pulls forward a simple logistics problem: passive funds may need cash sooner, which can mean selling a little of today's megacaps to make room. The buying itself can also come in stages. With fast entry, a new stock can start with a smaller index weight tied to its public float - the shares that can actually trade - and that weight can rise as lockups expire and more stock becomes freely tradable. Reuters noted lockups often end 90-180 days after an IPO, a window that can bring insider selling and a jump in tradable shares at the same time. Put together, that leaves two points where flows can overpower fundamentals for a spell: the initial index-inclusion rebalance, and the later post-lockup period when the index effectively "needs" to own more.
Fujitsu and Anthropic Put Human-in-the-Loop CX on Notice
Fujitsu's Anthropic partnership adds execution muscle to its self-evolving agent pitch, and raises the pressure on human-gated enterprise AI Fujitsu has doubled down on self-evolving AI agents by pairing its autonomous multi-agent approach with a new strategic partnership with Anthropic. For CX executives, the combined message is sharper than either announcement alone. Enterprises have only just normalized 'human-in-the-loop' AI as the safe compromise. Fujitsu is now arguing that the next competitive baseline is AI that improves itself, and it is building the delivery and model partnerships to make that real. Human-in-the-loop became the enterprise default because it made AI adoption feel controllable. Teams could monitor failures. They could approve changes. They could treat agent improvement like any other change request. But CX doesn't wait for quarterly tuning cycles. New policies trigger confusion overnight. Product changes create new intent clusters in hours. A single edge case can become a contact driver by lunchtime. Fujitsu's self-evolving multi-agent technology targets that gap. It says agent teams can learn 'continuously and safely' from daily execution results, human feedback, policy revisions, and specification changes. It also claims the system can take over tasks that previously required experts, including prompt adjustments and evaluation criteria updates. In a statement, Fujitsu warned: "While conventional AI agents demonstrate high processing capabilities for given instructions, they have found it difficult to independently analyze reasons for failure and safely incorporate them into subsequent operations." Why the Anthropic Partnership Raises the Stakes for CCaaS and Agent Platforms The most important new detail is not that Fujitsu picked a frontier model. It is how Fujitsu plans to operationalize it. Fujitsu says it will strengthen its 'Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) model' using Claude. The goal is to translate AI into tangible business value through on-site customer collaboration. It also says around 100,000 Fujitsu Group employees will use Claude internally, and it plans to build a 1,000-person engineering team to bring Claude to customers. This matters for CX because enterprise AI programs typically fail in the messy middle. They stall between prototype and production. They get trapped in governance loops. They struggle to connect to real operational processes and real risk constraints. Fujitsu is signaling it wants to remove that friction with a delivery engine that embeds into operations. That approach pressures CCaaS and enterprise agent vendors that still depend on a human-managed improvement model. It also raises a new buyer expectation: autonomy is only valuable if a vendor can implement it safely in the customer's reality. Looking ahead, Yoshinami Takahashi, Chief Operating Officer at Fujitsu argued: "Through this partnership, we will further strengthen and accelerate our FDE model, ensuring that AI is continuously translated into real value through deep engagement with customer operations." Fujitsu Isn't First to the Concept, but It's Packaging Autonomy for Enterprises Self-improving multi-agent patterns have been active across major labs and academia. Stanford has explored multi-agent optimization frameworks that build experience libraries to improve performance. Meta AI has developed collaborative reasoning approaches using synthetic conversations. Amazon has built multi-agent systems for complex enterprise reasoning. OpenAI, IBM, and the LangChain ecosystem have accelerated agent frameworks and evaluation loops. What has been rare is packaging the full closed-loop improvement concept into an enterprise-ready promise, then pairing it with clear delivery capacity. Fujitsu is trying to bridge that gap with two moves. It has announced self-evolving agents and also partnered with Anthropic to bring Claude into its stack while emphasizing data sovereignty, regulatory compliance, and security. Regulated CX Is the Test Case, and the Differentiator Is Trust Fujitsu's self-evolving agent release leans into regulated, complex work where rules change constantly and errors have consequences. It also claims an average accuracy improvement of 28 points compared to pre-specialization performance. That accuracy claim is a key CX signal. In regulated journeys, hallucination risk is not a minor defect. It becomes customer harm, legal exposure, and reputational damage. Most enterprise platforms have used human gating as the safety mechanism. Fujitsu is claiming the safety mechanism can be engineered into the autonomous loop itself, and it is positioning that as a prerequisite for adoption in manufacturing, healthcare, finance, and public administration. Takahito Tokita, Chief Executive Officer at Fujitsu positioned it as: "Through this collaboration, we will combine Fujitsu's deep expertise across industries... with Anthropic's advanced AI models. In doing so, we aim to support the creation of new value across industries and realize a trustworthy, AI-driven society." What Changes Inside CX Teams: From Bot Tuning to AI Governance If self-evolving systems become real, CX teams do not stop being accountable. They stop being the people who manually rewrite the training manual every week. The human role shifts upward into governance and operations. CX leaders will spend more time defining the boundaries of autonomy and less time micromanaging prompts. That means focusing on what the system is allowed to optimize for, and what it must never do. It also means treating the agent as a living system that needs auditability, regression testing, monitoring for drift, and disciplined rollback. Fujitsu's Anthropic partnership adds a practical implication here. If Fujitsu becomes 'Customer Zero' internally by deploying Claude across 100,000 employees, it gives Fujitsu a large internal proving ground for safe usage patterns before it pushes the same approach into regulated customers. Asked what changes now, Yoshinami Takahashi emphasized: "Fujitsu will become Customer Zero by thoroughly utilizing Claude alongside its own technologies Takane and Kozuchi to fundamentally transform internal operations and development." CX has spent the last decade buying platforms and then bolting automation onto them. The near future looks different. Fujitsu is outlining a stack where a frontier model like Claude provides capability, while a self-evolving multi-agent layer provides continuous adaptation, and an FDE-style delivery model provides operational integration. If that model works, CCaaS vendors will face a fast-moving expectation shift. Buyers will not just ask whether the agent can answer questions. They will ask how quickly it adapts to changing policies without a human rebuild cycle. I've seen too many CX programs where the bot gets blamed for being dumb, when the truth is the improvement loop is just too slow. Fujitsu's latest two announcements suggest the next wave of CX advantage may come from shrinking that loop to near real time, and proving it can happen safely. Join the conversation: Join our LinkedIn community (40,000+ members): https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1951190/ Get the weekly rundown: Subscribe to our newsletter: http://cxtoday.com/sign-up
SpaceX's Deep Moat
Making large-language models is hard. Rockets are even harder. SpaceX and OpenAI are both racing towards public offerings. That will put on display two very different businesses that are both putting distinctive spins on the artificial intelligence market. Importantly, Musk has succeeded in ...
SpaceX is powering a new ETF race: Chart of the Day
SpaceX (SPAX.PVT) is not yet public, but the race to own it is already rearranging the ETF market. A new space ETF with SpaceX exposure has surged past older rivals in assets just two months after launching, turning a once-niche corner of the ETF market into a pre-IPO access trade for one of the biggest expected IPOs on Wall Street. The Tema Space Innovators ETF gives investors exposure to SpaceX through a special-purpose vehicle (SPV), a private-market structure that can hold stock in companies before they list publicly. That makes the fund less of a simple space basket and more of a workaround for investors who want SpaceX exposure before the IPO. Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas called it "wild scenes in the Space ETF category" on X, noting that multiple space ETFs had been on the market for years before the Tema Space Innovators ETF passed them in its first two months. His read was blunt: the Tema Space Innovators ETF has SpaceX SPV exposure at about 10% of the fund, and "there's a feeding frenzy [right now] to get exposure." That feeding frenzy is not limited to one ticker. Balchunas also noted that ETFs with SpaceX exposure -- the Tema Space Innovators ETF, the Baron First Principles ETF (RONB), and the ERShares Private-Public Crossover ETF (XOVR) -- were all in the top 1% of inflows over the past week. The Baron First Principles ETF, he added, had tripled assets from $400 million to $1.2 billion in two weeks. His punchline: "SpaceX is giving otherwise small/new ETFs superpowers." Yahoo Finance flagged the ETF race earlier this month, when Wall Street was already building funds around SpaceX before the company had listed. Now, the workaround trade has moved from concept to leaderboard. The same shadow-market logic is showing up around private AI names like Anthropic (ANTH.PVT). The company is private, but investors are finding public ways to watch it, price it, and trade around it. That's why SpaceX's eventual IPO could be such a major market event. A hot listing would not just add another ticker to the board. It could also pull together private-market demand, ETF flows, and the broader AI-infrastructure trade already pushing market concentration higher. For investors, the signal is simple. SpaceX is already acting like a public-market force before becoming a public company. The more cash piles into these ETFs, the more the space trade looks like a waiting room for one stock.
SpaceX is powering a new ETF race: Chart of the Day
SpaceX (SPAX.PVT) is not yet public, but the race to own it is already rearranging the ETF market. A new space ETF with SpaceX exposure has surged past older rivals in assets just two months after launching, turning a once-niche corner of the ETF market into a pre-IPO access trade for one of the biggest expected IPOs on Wall Street. The Tema Space Innovators ETF gives investors exposure to SpaceX through a special-purpose vehicle (SPV), a private-market structure that can hold stock in companies before they list publicly. That makes the fund less of a simple space basket and more of a workaround for investors who want SpaceX exposure before the IPO. Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas called it "wild scenes in the Space ETF category" on X, noting that multiple space ETFs had been on the market for years before the Tema Space Innovators ETF passed them in its first two months. His read was blunt: the Tema Space Innovators ETF has SpaceX SPV exposure at about 10% of the fund, and "there's a feeding frenzy [right now] to get exposure." That feeding frenzy is not limited to one ticker. Balchunas also noted that ETFs with SpaceX exposure -- the Tema Space Innovators ETF, the Baron First Principles ETF (RONB), and the ERShares Private-Public Crossover ETF (XOVR) -- were all in the top 1% of inflows over the past week. The Baron First Principles ETF, he added, had tripled assets from $400 million to $1.2 billion in two weeks. His punchline: "SpaceX is giving otherwise small/new ETFs superpowers." Yahoo Finance flagged the ETF race earlier this month, when Wall Street was already building funds around SpaceX before the company had listed. Now, the workaround trade has moved from concept to leaderboard. The same shadow-market logic is showing up around private AI names like Anthropic (ANTH.PVT). The company is private, but investors are finding public ways to watch it, price it, and trade around it. That's why SpaceX's eventual IPO could be such a major market event. A hot listing would not just add another ticker to the board. It could also pull together private-market demand, ETF flows, and the broader AI-infrastructure trade already pushing market concentration higher. For investors, the signal is simple. SpaceX is already acting like a public-market force before becoming a public company. The more cash piles into these ETFs, the more the space trade looks like a waiting room for one stock.
Tesla Stock Price Surges On NASA Moon Base Plans And SpaceX Merger Speculation
Shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) are on track for their best month since September as investors bet that Elon Musk's AI and space empire stands to gain from NASA's expanding lunar ambitions and growing SpaceX merger chatter. TSLA stock jumped nearly 2% on Tuesday, marking its fourth consecutive session of gains. NASA unveiled fresh details around its $20 billion Moon Base initiative, which aims to establish a permanent human presence near the Moon's south pole by 2032 as the U.S. races China in the next era of space exploration. The program includes robotic landers, hopping drones, autonomous rovers, cargo systems, nuclear and solar-powered infrastructure, and eventually semi-permanent lunar housing for astronauts. NASA outlined a three-phase strategy involving up to 25 missions before 2029, ahead of future Artemis astronaut landings, with the effort backed by President Donald Trump's administration. NASA also announced new contracts involving Blue Origin, Intuitive Machines, Astrobotic, Astrolab, and Lunar Outpost for lunar landers, robotic systems, and mobility vehicles. SpaceX remains central to NASA's broader lunar ambitions through its 2021 Artemis Human Landing System contract, under which the company's Starship vehicle will transport astronauts and cargo to the lunar surface. Musk quickly amplified investor enthusiasm following NASA's announcements, posting on X: "Time to build a major base on the Moon!" In a separate post, Musk framed lunar and Martian colonization as essential to humanity's survival, stating: "What matters is securing the long-term future of consciousness, both on Earth and other heavenly bodies." Musk added: "We cannot just focus on Earth, because there are irreducible external and internal cataclysmic risks." He called establishing self-growing civilizations on the Moon and Mars "the prime directive of SpaceX." According to SpaceX, Starship can deliver astronauts, habitats, rovers, and more than 100 tons of cargo directly to the lunar surface using reusable launch systems and in-space refueling technology. Investor optimism was further boosted when SpaceX recently completed a largely successful Starship V3 test flight involving mock satellite deployments and a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. During the mission, SpaceX successfully deployed mock Starlink satellites, executed atmospheric re-entry maneuvers, and completed a controlled descent before the vehicle exploded after splashdown. The test comes just weeks ahead of SpaceX's expected IPO, which could become the largest public listing in history and potentially value the company at around $1.75 trillion. Elon Musk has reportedly discussed internally the possibility of eventually merging Tesla and SpaceX as operational ties between the two companies and xAI continue to deepen, according to CNBC. In its IPO filing, SpaceX disclosed that it has purchased hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Tesla Megapack battery systems and Cybertrucks. Merger speculation increased last week after Musk appeared to sidestep questions on the topic during a Forbes interview, responding: "Well, it'd be difficult for me to sort of comment on that, you know, because, you know, there's publicly traded companies, and they're publicly traded on ones, you know, about to be." When pressed on reports surrounding a possible SpaceX S-1 filing, Musk added: "I think I'm not allowed to comment on these things. It's like a quiet period or something to that effect." SpaceX acquired xAI earlier this year in an all-stock deal valuing the combined entity at $1.25 trillion, with Musk since rebranding the combined operation as "SpaceXAI." Musk also defended xAI's position in the AI race against OpenAI and Anthropic, stating: "What you say is true, but nonetheless our AI will be great -- whether it is the best remains to be seen, but I will never give up. Never." Highlighting xAI's relative youth compared to its rivals, Musk said: "Space(XAI) is only 3 years old. That's half the age of Anthropic and quarter the age of OpenAI. Let's see where things stand 3 years from now." Musk drew a parallel to SpaceX's own difficult early years, noting: "SpaceX had achieved nothing of note after 3 years and was written off as dead after 6 years with 3 consecutive launch failures. But you may have noticed that things are different now." On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Tesla was "neutral" with "normal" message volume, while sentiment around SpaceX remained "extremely bullish" amid "high" message volume. So far this year, TSLA stock has lagged its "Magnificent Seven" peers, making it the group's third-worst performer, down 4%.
Prediction: SpaceX Stock Will Crash This Year. Here's Why.
The company's ambitious plan to put data centers in space might not pass the common sense test. Elon Musk may seem to have the Midas touch when it comes to business. With his track record of beating the odds and creating successful businesses that can disrupt entire industries, it is tempting for investors to bet on any company that has his name attached to it. Past success, however, doesn't guarantee future results. And there are several reasons SpaceX might not live up to expectations after its initial public offering (IPO) planned for next month. Let's dig deeper into how unprofitable artificial intelligence (AI) exposure and a highly speculative business strategy could cause the stock to underperform after its public debut. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue " SpaceX could become the largest public stock debut in history with an expected valuation of $2 trillion. To put that number in perspective, it would make SpaceX worth more than all but six public companies on the planet. Furthermore, SpaceX's potential market capitalization isn't well supported by its business fundamentals. This month, SpaceX filed its S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This document is required in the pre-IPO process, and it gives the market its first peek inside the financials of the privately held company. In 2025, SpaceX's revenue jumped 33% year over year to $18.7 billion, which is quite impressive for a company of its size. On the other hand, expenses (particularly for research and development) are also ballooning at an even faster clip, which led to operating income collapsing from a positive $466 million to a loss of $2.6 billion in the period. Investors shouldn't be too surprised that a rocket company is spending huge amounts on R&D. After all, this is a complex technology with huge regulatory and testing requirements. However, a rising portion of SpaceX's spending is going toward a much more speculative and arguably less beneficial part of its business -- generative AI. According to the S-1 filing, SpaceX's AI segment generated an operating loss of $6.36 billion in 2025. This figure gets even more alarming when you remember that this happened before the acquisition of xAI in February 2026. The new subsidiary will likely make the cash burn worse because of the need to build and maintain data-center capacity and keep up with rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic. There are signs that xAI may already be falling behind. Although the company claims capacity and energy are its primary constraints, lack of demand may play an even bigger role. The company is actually renting out excess capacity to rivals, with Anthropic reportedly paying $1.25 billion per month for access to xAI's Colossus data centers. Image source: Getty Images. In the near term, this deal sounds like good news for SpaceX because of the enormous revenue opportunity. However, it represents training and inference capacity that won't be going to the company's in-house large language model (LLM) Grok. Furthermore, Anthropic can exit the deal before it expires in 2029. And over time, SpaceX's data centers could struggle to compete with hyperscalers like Amazon, which plans to make $200 billion in AI-related capital expenditures this year alone. Elon Musk's proposed space-based data centers could eventually give the company an edge by enabling access to abundant solar energy and dramatically reducing cooling costs. But this strategy could run into problems ranging from space debris to maintenance challenges and should not be seen as a realistic business plan with current technology. Despite his entrepreneurial success, Elon Musk has developed a track record of overpromising and underdelivering. And the SpaceX IPO is shaping up to be one of the biggest disappointments yet. When our analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, Stock Advisor's total average return is 986%* -- a market-crushing outperformance compared to 208% for the S&P 500. Will Ebiefung has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
SpaceX helps Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust take off
Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust revealed the extent of the success of its early backing for Elon Musk's SpaceX on Wednesday. The buy-and-hold investor's stake in the rocket maker now amounts to about a fifth of the £16bn fund, as revealed in its results for the year to the end of March. Overall, SMT's net asset value in the year to the end of March rose by over 27 per cent. Christopher Samuel, the FTSE 100 constituent's chair, pointed to "a significant upward revaluation" in the SpaceX holding amid "continued strong operational execution". It left the operator of the global Starlink satellite web access network as SMT's "largest holding by some margin". The stake rose in value by 179 per cent over the year. "This highlights both the importance of access to leading private companies and the extent to which a small number of exceptional investments can drive long‑term returns', Samuel added. The extent of SMT's current dependence on SpaceX comes as the pioneering off-world company prepares to transform itself from a privately held firm into a publicly listed company via a blockbuster, $1.75 trillion initial public offering, or IPO. In the City, attention focused on the potential implications of the landmark floatation for SMT, especially with SpaceX powering its returns to such a dominant extent. City gets in on SpaceX IPO SMT is also seen as a route into the IPO, given the extent of its existing holding. Tom Slater, the manager of Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, said the contribution from SpaceX amounted to "a degree of concentration which is highly unusual for us". He added: "It would be remiss not to acknowledge the potential for volatility that comes with a position of this size." But he pointed out that "SpaceX should no longer be thought of as an aerospace contractor but as a dual monopoly: the world's dominant launch provider and a global connectivity utility with the potential for software-like margins." Slater, who has been running the fund since 2015 after six years as its deputy manager, spoke of the dynamics at work within SpaceX. He said: "Though launch vehicles generate the media attention, the valuation has been driven primarily by its satellite communications subsidiary, Starlink, which is building the kind of predictable, highly profitable revenue that the best software businesses aspire to. "The difference is that its assets are in orbit and extraordinarily difficult to replicate. "SpaceX should no longer be thought of as an aerospace contractor but as a dual monopoly: the world's dominant launch provider and a global connectivity utility with the potential for software-like margins." 'Attractive long-term opportunities' The SpaceX floatation on the US stock exchange will be a landmark moment for markets as well as the company. It could establish the firm among the most valuable in the world, although there has been controversy over the headline valuation. Its 200,000 word IPO prospectus mentioned data centres in space, asteroid mining and the development of regular transports to the moon and Mars. Along with such space age detail, the IPO comes with down-to-earth implications for current backers of the venture. It will include a lock-up period in the run up to the share sale, when private shares in SpaceX cannot be sold. Nonetheless, SMT and other early SpaceX backers, can hold their stakes through the transition and on into the future. As Slater pointed out "a listing changes the venue in which a company's shares are traded. The opportunity and our reasons for owning it remain the same." Emma Bird at City broker Winterflood said the IPO, at the valuation suggested, would "represent another seven per cent uplift on Net asset Value" for SMT. "We continue to rate the managers of SMT highly, and expect them to be able to recycle these proceeds into attractive new long-term growth opportunities," she added. SMT is managed by Baillie Gifford, but is separately listed and has FTSE 100 status in its own right. The firm is a long-term investor in high growth companies and is known for backing the likes of Nvidia, the AI chip maker and Alibaba, the giant Chinese web retailer, as well as electric car maker Tesla, another Musk firm. It also has staked in music streamer Spotify and the online game Roblox. AI generational opportunity for SMT City AM analysis found that based on the $1.75 trillion valuation for the SpaceX IPO, Baillie Gifford is in line to break records with its bet on the firm, returning £3.5bn from it across its four flagship investment trusts. That would be one of the largest such returns in UK investment history. Baillie first backed SpaceX in 2018. Matthew Hose, equity analyst at Jeffries, said the IPO "represents a key juncture for the position and the trust as a whole". He said the overall results "highlight limited portfolio activity, but continued very strong performance from the private investments". IPO lock up periods could become a familiar pattern for SMT's tech investments. It also has holdings in other debut candidates in Anthropic and Databricks in the artificial intelligence sector, alongside Bytedance, the owner of Tiktok, and Stripe, the online billing platform. SMT views AI as a generational opportunity. Samuel called it "the early stages of a profound technological transition", which SMT is meeting with a "long-term, globally unconstrained approach", including "maintaining exposure to selected Chinese companies where compelling opportunities exist". He added: "Artificial intelligence is not simply another incremental innovation; it has the potential to reshape industries, alter competitive dynamics and change where value accrues across the economy. "As with previous paradigm shifts, the ultimate winners are unlikely to be obvious in advance and may emerge from different geographies, sectors and stages of development." 'More challenging' investment environment SMT said today that, more generally, its brand of long term investing has been through "a more challenging period". The travails of "growth investing ... continues to influence the company's five-year record", but called its annual results for the year to the end of March "encouraging". Samuel added: "As in previous years, we emphasise that one year is too short a timeframe over which to assess performance. Our focus remains firmly on long-term outcomes, and the board continues to believe that the portfolio is well positioned to deliver attractive returns over time." SMT launched in 1909 and made pioneering investments in rubber into the boom in car ownership sparked by the Model T Ford. It also backed Chilean railways and telegraph companies in Cuba. It was an early international investor in Japan, when rules over foreign investment there were loosened in the 1980s. When the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s, SMT doubled down on its long-term strategy for its global portfolio, looking at a time horizon of five years. Having backed Amazon, Tencent and Tesla, it made it onto the FTSE 100 in 2017. On Wednesday, Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust's own stock rose 0.5 per cent to 1.528p, taking it up almost 55 per cent in the last year, and over 30 per cent in five years.
The hidden market risks of SpaceX's IPO
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. Earlier this week, we explored whether the IPO boom, led by SpaceX, is a sign that the market environment that's getting a bit too frothy. In keeping with the IPO theme, let's dive into some of the potential risks these offerings pose to the broader market structure. One concern here should be liquidity needs. Let's use SpaceX and the $75 billion the firm will seek to raise when it's expected to go public on June 12. That money will need to come from somewhere, but there are very limited amounts of cash on the sidelines that investors can draw on. Bank of America's private wealth management clients, for instance, are sitting on record low cash levels of 9.9% of their portfolios, while also allocating a record 66% of their money to stocks. This means that to fund their purchases of SpaceX shares, investors could sell their holdings in other areas of the market, creating downward pressure where outflows occur. Liquidity-sensitive stocks like those in the growth factor might be first in line to take a hit, but where exactly that selling ultimately happens is a mystery, says Bob Doll, the CEO of Crossmark Global Investments and the former equities chief at BlackRock. "Logically, you would think if I'm going to buy a stock in that space, I'll probably sell a stock in that space to make room for it rather than selling some utility or energy company," Doll told Business Insider on Tuesday. "That's logical, but these tech owners, they just want to own more, so maybe they do sell their Procter & Gamble," he added. Volatility in other parts of the market is likely to be even more pronounced when SpaceX and other large firms are added to the Nasdaq 100 and other indexes, according to MSCI research. Since the tech sector will grow with their inclusions, others -- like the consumer discretionary and healthcare sectors -- will necessarily have to shrink, meaning index funds will have to sell off some of those holdings. The reweighting within the tech sector will also affect those names. MSCI estimates Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft will see the largest outflows as a result of the new inclusions. When the reshuffling is all said and done, Doll said another market structure impact will be unprecedented levels of concentration. The AI megacaps could soon make up around half of the S&P 500. As Asher Regovy, the chief investment officer at Magnifina, put it in a recent report, that leaves the market exceptionally vulnerable to one event, like a bad earnings release that sends shock waves through similar stocks. So, what can you do about these risks? Doll said he's not too worried about potential liquidity events stemming from these IPOs, as they'll be short-lived. He's also not overly concerned about concentration at the moment, since tech-sector valuations are still at reasonable levels. That outlook in mind, he said he has exposure to both defensive stocks and to the AI trade, with a focus on firms that have high return on equity, or profitability levels. "Valuation levels are high, uncertainty is high, so I'm gonna lean on the companies that are delivering the goods," Doll said. For those specifically seeking to reduce concentration risk in their portfolios, UBS told its clients last week to lessen dependence on mega-caps by adding exposure to Japanese, Chinese, and Swiss stocks, as well as emerging markets, European consumer discretionary, and global health care stocks.