News & Updates
The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
SpaceX Falcon 9 Almost Only Rocket for AST Space Mobile, Amazon LEO and Space Force
Blue Origin New Glenn is likely grounded for 4 months to investigate the upper stage failure on the weekend. ULA Vulcan is grounded because of two Grumman solid rocket booster failures. The satellite launchers Amazon, Space Force and AST Space Mobile have to rely on SpaceX Falcon 9. Amazon LEO needs 10-15 Falcon 9 launches per year from SpaceX. AST Spacemobile needs 10-20 launches per year from SpaceX. US defense space force is moving 70 backlogged launches not launched. by ULA to SpaceX. ULA launched 4 times total in 2-3 years. About $3-4 billion per year in launches need to go to spaceX. SpaceX already has 150-160 launches committed. 130 to Starlink and 20-30 for NASA and others. Can SpaceX surge an added 30 launches in the final half of the year? Amazon LEO- 24 month extension to get 1618 satellites for half of plan. What is actually launching in 2026 (confirmed as of April 21):April 27/28: Two launches this week -- * ULA Atlas V (LA-06) → 29 satellites (SLC-41, Cape Canaveral). * Arianespace Ariane 64 (LE-02) → 32 satellites (Kourou, French Guiana). Lucky get one per month of Atlas 5 or Ariane. they need about 30 Falcon 9 launches Rest of 2026 outlook cannot realistically see Amazon ramping to 4 launches per month. They have the remaining Atlas V rockets. Ariane 6 (18 total contracted. pace is ~1 every 1-2 months initially). Increasing Falcon 9 usage (24-27 per flight. Amazon is adding more missions to bridge gaps). Amazon has launched about 240 of the 3200 planned Amazon LEO satellites, compete against the 10,300 satellites Starlink has in orbit and adding 3000 satellites this year. They are buying Globalstar for 11.7 billiion for DTC (direct to cellphone) spectrum. Starlink already has 650 DTC satellites and those are already in orbit and servicing millions of T-mobile and other global customers. ULA Vulcan rockets using Blue Origin BE4 engines cannot fly for now. Failed solid rocket boosters. Blue Origin second stage failed to AST Spacemobile satellite into right orbit. FAA mishap probe grounds new glenn. Analysts and space community consensus point to a similar or longer delay (2-4+ months) because this is an upper-stage engine issue. Next launch is NASA payload. Could be no commercial launch til late in 2026 or early 2027. Amazon new direct to satellite service is mostly after they get 3000 internet service satellites up. halfway maybe in 2028. Don't see many until 2030 without massive SpaceX launch reliance SpaceX will have the capacity, but bezos must swallow pride and order primarily spacex. And get satellite production sped up.
Google creates strike team to improve AI coding models, catch up with Anthropic: Report
The team is expected to focus on building AI systems that can handle complex, long-term coding tasks. Google has reportedly created a strike team to improve its AI coding models. According to a report by The Information, the move comes after growing belief within Google DeepMind that coding tools developed by Anthropic are currently ahead of Google's own Gemini models. AI-assisted coding has become one of the most competitive areas. Anthropic has been focusing heavily on this segment with its tool Claude Code. The company has even said that most of its code is now written with the help of AI. However, according to Google's CFO Anat Ashkenazi, AI currently writes around half of the company's code. The new strike team is expected to help improve that number while strengthening Google's AI coding capabilities overall. Also read: OpenAI releases Chronicle in Codex: What is it and how to use The strike team is led by Sebastian Borgeaud, who previously worked as the pre-training lead for Gemini at Google DeepMind. The group is expected to focus on building AI systems that can handle complex, long-term coding tasks. Also read: 'Legend': Sam Altman and other leaders react as Tim Cook steps down as Apple CEO Senior leadership is also said to be closely involved in the initiative, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin and DeepMind CTO Koray Kavukcuoglu. Google is also reportedly focusing on using AI internally. Until now, many of the company's AI models have primarily been designed for external developers and customers. Google is even tracking how often employees use these AI coding tools through an internal leaderboard. For those unaware, Claude Code is an AI-powered coding assistant by Anthropic that can read, modify and execute code on your computer via natural language commands.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell Earns $85.8M as IPO Buzz Grows
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell Earns $85.8M as IPO Buzz Grows. Source: Bill Ingalls, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell earned $85.8 million in total compensation last year, according to details from the company's S-1 filing, positioning her among the highest-paid executives in the United States. The majority of her earnings came from stock options and equity awards, while her base salary stood at $1 million, highlighting the growing trend of performance-based executive compensation in the tech and aerospace industries. The disclosure comes as Elon Musk's SpaceX reportedly moves closer to a potential U.S. initial public offering (IPO). Reuters previously reported that the company has filed confidentially, with an estimated valuation of around $1.75 trillion, which could make it one of the largest IPOs in history. Such developments have increased interest in SpaceX leadership, executive pay, and overall financial structure. In comparison, SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnson received $9.8 million in total compensation. Meanwhile, CEO Elon Musk, who remains the company's majority shareholder, paid himself a relatively modest salary of $54,080. These figures underscore Musk's strategy of tying wealth primarily to company equity rather than salary. Shotwell's compensation exceeds that of several major tech leaders. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella earned $79 million in 2024, while Apple CEO Tim Cook received $75 million, based on Equilar data. With an estimated net worth of $3.4 billion, according to Forbes, Shotwell has become one of the most influential figures in the aerospace sector. Although Musk is widely recognized as the face of SpaceX, Shotwell plays a critical role in daily operations. She oversees the execution of ambitious projects, including rocket manufacturing, satellite deployment, and securing contracts with commercial, government, and military clients. Her leadership has been instrumental in scaling the Falcon 9 rocket program and expanding the Starlink satellite network, now a primary revenue driver for the company. Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 as vice president of business development and was one of the company's earliest employees. With a background in mechanical engineering and experience at Chrysler Motors, she has helped transform SpaceX into a dominant force in the global space industry.
Anthropic commits over $100 billion to AWS for AI infrastructure expansion
New Delhi: Anthropic and Amazon have announced a major expansion of their AI partnership, signalling how fast the demand for large language models is growing. The new agreement focuses on scaling infrastructure for Claude, Anthropic's AI system, as usage rises across enterprise and consumer segments. The deal brings together cloud, chips, and long-term investment in one package. From early collaborations in 2023 to now, the partnership has moved into a phase where compute capacity is becoming the main battleground in AI development. Anthropic locks in massive compute capacity on AWS Anthropic has committed to spend more than $100 billion over the next decade on AWS infrastructure, securing access to up to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity. This capacity will be used to train and deploy Claude models using Amazon's Trainium chips, including current and future versions. Trainium2 capacity is already coming online, with scaled deployments of Trainium3 expected later this year. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said, "Our custom AI silicon offers high performance at significantly lower cost for customers, which is why it's in such hot demand." The companies are also continuing work on Project Rainier, described as one of the largest AI compute clusters globally, built to support large-scale model training. Claude usage surges as enterprise demand rises Anthropic says adoption of Claude has accelerated sharply in 2026. Over 100,000 customers are now running Claude models on Amazon Bedrock. The company's run rate revenue has crossed $30 billion, up from around $9 billion at the end of 2025. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, said, "Our users tell us Claude is increasingly essential to how they work, and we need to build the infrastructure to keep pace with rapidly growing demand." He added, "Our collaboration with Amazon will allow us to continue advancing AI research while delivering Claude to our customers, including the more than 100,000 building on AWS." AWS integration and global expansion plans As part of the agreement, the full Claude platform will be available within AWS, allowing customers to use it with existing accounts and controls. This move simplifies access for enterprises already using AWS services. Amazon is also investing $5 billion immediately in Anthropic, with the option to invest up to $20 billion more in the future. The partnership includes expansion of AI inference infrastructure in Asia and Europe to support growing global demand.
Epsom protest chaos: Four arrested as demonstrators hurl eggs and beer cans at police
A protest in Epsom descended into chaos on Monday night as objects were thrown at police and a number of arrests were made. Demonstrators gathered in the London commuter town after police said there is no evidence that immigrants or asylum seekers were involved in an alleged rape outside a church. Crowds of people marched down a residential street in the upmarket town with riot police at the scene. Surrey Police said the protest "escalated to public disorder", with eggs and beer cans being thrown and a person appeared to try to climb on top of a police van. Four people were arrested on suspicion of offences including criminal damage and assaulting an emergency worker. Video on social media showed around 20 officers scrambling to protect a property as protesters descended. In a statement, Surrey Police said: "The organised protest started at 5pm outside Epsom train station before escalating to public disorder when individuals targeted local hotels and residential properties with claims that these were housing people seeking asylum. "This is not the case and is wholly inaccurate information. "The escalating behaviour of some of the protesters and the threat to officer safety, including missiles being thrown at them, required officers to put on full protective public order uniform. "Four people remain in police custody after being arrested on suspicion of offences, including criminal damage and assaulting an emergency worker, during the disorder." It came after Surrey Police had received a report that a woman in her 20s had assaulted outside a church in Ashley Road after leaving Labyrinth Epsom nightclub on Saturday April 11 between 2am and 4am. Public anger erupted over the force not releasing the ethnicity of any suspects but Surrey Police said this was because "the information about the incident and potential suspects is so limited". Hundreds of demonstrators squared off with police last Wednesday in chaotic scenes that saw with objects thrown at officers. Following the latest disorder, Surrey Police warned that "robust action" will be taken against anyone who commits a criminal offence in the protests. In an update posted on the Epsom and Ewell Beat Facebook page on Monday evening, the force said: "Police are in atten In a statement late on Monday night, the force said: "While we respect the right to lawful protest, criminal offences and public disorder will not be tolerated. Robust action will be taken against anyone who commits a criminal offence. "We will continue to review footage of this evening's incident to identify those responsible for any further criminal offences and take appropriate action against them." Officers said there would be an increased police presence in the town after the protest finished. The force previously said: "We are aware that speculation and concern about the report we received remains, and we reiterate that our inquiries remain ongoing. "These inquiries have included reviewing an extensive amount of CCTV footage from the area, carrying out forensics investigations and conducting house-to-house inquiries. "To date, we have not found any evidence that the offence took place as reported." Police have urged anyone with CCTV, dashcam or helmet camera footage to contact them online, or via 101, quoting the reference number PR/45260041426.
Exclusive-SpaceX president Shotwell earned $85 million last year, document shows
NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters) - SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell earned $85.8 million in total compensation last year, a company prospectus showed, placing her among the highest‑paid U.S. executives. Shotwell, who is also chief operating officer, earned a salary of $1 million, with most of her compensation coming from stock options and awards, according to an excerpt of SpaceX's S‑1 filing. Companies use the registration document to disclose their finances and risks before going public. Elon Musk's SpaceX has filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO, Reuters reported this month, paving the way for a potential record‑breaking listing valued at around $1.75 trillion. Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnson earned total compensation of $9.8 million, while billionaire CEO Musk, the majority shareholder in SpaceX, paid himself a salary of $54,080, the excerpt from the prospectus showed. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The compensation figures, which have not been previously reported, place Shotwell's pay above many other high-profile tech executives. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella earned $79 million in 2024, while Apple's Tim Cook took home $75 million, according to compensation data compiled by Equilar. Shotwell has a net worth of $3.4 billion, according to Forbes. Although Musk is the public face of SpaceX, 62‑year‑old Shotwell manages much of the company's day‑to‑day grind. That involves converting Musk's futuristic vision into the practical realities of manufacturing rockets, deploying satellites and lining up commercial, government and military customers. Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 as vice president of business development, becoming employee No. 7 at the then‑fledgling company. She has been a central behind‑the‑scenes figure in building demand for SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 rocket, as well as its Starlink satellite broadband constellation, which now generates the bulk of the company's revenue and profit. A mechanical engineer by training, Shotwell began her career at Chrysler Motors before moving into the space industry. (Reporting by Echo Wang; additional reporting by Chris Sanders; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Amazon (AMZN) Stock Surges on Anthropic's $100B AWS Infrastructure Commitment
* Anthropic pledges $100B to AWS infrastructure, sending Amazon stock higher * Five gigawatt capacity secured as AWS accelerates AI compute capabilities * Long-term AWS partnership positions Amazon as AI infrastructure leader * Massive compute agreement reinforces AWS dominance in enterprise AI * Amazon strengthens market position with Anthropic's expanded infrastructure commitment Amazon's stock experienced a notable turnaround in extended trading following significant AI infrastructure news. While shares finished regular trading in the red, they rallied strongly after market close on news of expanded collaboration with Anthropic. The development highlights growing demand for enterprise-scale AI computing capabilities and reinforces Amazon's leadership in cloud services. AMZN ended regular trading at $248.28, declining 0.91%, before jumping to $254.51 in after-hours activity -- a robust 2.51% gain driven by investor enthusiasm. Amazon.com, Inc., AMZN Massive Cloud Infrastructure Deal Reinforces AWS Leadership Amazon disclosed a substantial long-term agreement connecting its AWS cloud platform with Anthropic's AI ambitions. The arrangement involves Anthropic committing more than $100 billion to AWS services over the coming decade. This comprehensive deal encompasses both existing and next-generation Trainium processors alongside Graviton chip technology. The AI company will leverage up to five gigawatts of computational power for training sophisticated artificial intelligence systems. This infrastructure includes forthcoming Trainium3 hardware scheduled for release later this year. The expansion strategy also prioritizes increasing inference capabilities throughout Asian and European territories. Amazon continues advancing its proprietary chip development through widespread Trainium and Graviton deployment. These processors currently power solutions for more than 100,000 AWS clients globally. This approach enables Amazon to deliver enhanced cost optimization and superior scalability for AI-focused operations. Capital Injection Deepens AI Partnership Ties Amazon announced an additional $5 billion equity stake in Anthropic, with provisions for increasing the total to $20 billion upon achieving specific performance benchmarks. This investment supplements the company's previous $8 billion commitment to the AI developer. The arrangement demonstrates strategic alignment between both organizations regarding AI infrastructure evolution and model deployment strategies. AWS has now embedded the Claude AI platform natively within its service offerings for business customers. Organizations can now utilize Claude capabilities directly through their AWS accounts, eliminating separate authentication or payment processes. This seamless integration simplifies adoption while positioning AWS as a comprehensive AI solution provider. Amazon is actively constructing massive computing clusters like Project Rainier. This particular system incorporates approximately half a million Trainium processors dedicated to training cutting-edge AI architectures. The infrastructure enables accelerated development cycles and enhanced model performance metrics. Enterprise AI Solutions Gain Market Momentum Anthropic's Claude AI models are experiencing widespread adoption across diverse business sectors via AWS platforms including Bedrock. More than 100,000 enterprises currently implement these technologies for multiple artificial intelligence applications. This expansion underscores rising corporate dependence on robust, scalable AI infrastructure solutions. Major corporations including Lyft and Pfizer have deployed Claude-powered systems to enhance operational performance. These implementations deliver faster response capabilities, streamlined automated processes, and substantial infrastructure cost reductions. AWS continues solidifying its position as an essential enterprise AI infrastructure provider. Amazon maintains close technical collaboration with development teams to refine upcoming AI processor designs. This partnership optimizes chip architecture utilizing actual training data from Claude model workloads. The cooperative approach accelerates both semiconductor innovation and large-scale AI deployment capabilities.
Exclusive-SpaceX tries to woo Wall Street with three-day analyst meeting this week, sources say
NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters) - SpaceX is moving ahead with plans for one of the most anticipated IPOs in history as it hosts analysts this week for three days of closed-door meetings at its launch facility in Texas and mega-sized data center in Tennessee, according to three people familiar with the matter. Elon Musk's company is holding the briefings for Wall Street's top aerospace and technology analysts as it looks to raise $75 billion, in what would be the world's biggest-ever IPO, with executives targeting a late June trading debut. The presentations kick off with an all-day meeting and analyst tour on Tuesday at the satellite and rocket maker's Starbase launch facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, the people said. Another group of analysts representing institutional investors, including big mutual funds and pension plans, will be briefed in a separate session at Starbase on Wednesday, the people said. On Thursday, the analysts have been invited to review the company's "Macrohard" project at its Colossus data center in Memphis, Tennessee, they added. Attendees are expected to surrender electronic devices to participate in the meetings, one of the people said. All three spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not public. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. Reuters was the first to report on the plans to host analysts earlier this month. The inclusion of Starbase on the tour and the three days of briefings have not been reported previously. IPO PROCESS Analyst days are a standard part of the IPO process, in which companies brief analysts on their business, financial outlook and long-term strategy ahead of a public listing. Some of the analysts scheduled to attend have also received copies of SpaceX's confidential registration filing, though the document contained limited information, two of the people said. Generally, IPO registration statements include a company's business description, financial statements, risk factors, how it plans to use the money it raises as well as details on major existing shareholders. About two weeks after the analyst days, SpaceX is expected to hold a separate "modeling" day for a select group of Wall Street analysts, some of whose banks are working on the deal, two of the people said. At such sessions, companies typically walk analysts through their financial projections, business thesis and the other key data that will help analysts calculate their earnings estimates before the listing. SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen has about two months to convince some of Wall Street's top analysts - and ultimately investors - that the company is worth an almost unfathomable $1.75 trillion. Musk merged xAI with SpaceX in February, bringing together the billionaire's rockets, Starlink satellites, the X social media platform and Grok AI chatbot under one roof. The combination created a tech and aerospace conglomerate like no other, but it also makes valuing SpaceX tricky. To justify the $75 billion Musk hopes to raise as well as the lofty valuation, at least one large institutional investor has been using unusual benchmarks to explain the math, Reuters previously reported. Rather than comparing SpaceX to legacy aerospace and telecom giants like Boeing and AT&T, that investor has been benchmarking it against Palantir Technologies and artificial intelligence infrastructure companies like GE Vernova and Vertiv -- a framework described to Reuters by a person familiar with the valuation discussions. RETAIL INVESTORS Musk also plans to reward the retail investors who have sent shares of electric vehicle company Tesla to illogical heights, trading at a valuation closer to a tech company than an automaker. He is planning to set aside some 30% of SpaceX shares for retail investors, hosting 1,500 of them to tour Starbase after the roadshow kicks off during the week of June 8, people familiar with the matter previously told Reuters. Musk is also opening up initial share sales to international retail investors from the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, Japan and Korea, Reuters previously reported. The structure of the deal and precise amount of the retail allocation are expected to be finalized closer to the IPO launch. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are leading the deal as active bookrunners, with 16 other banks in smaller roles spanning institutional, retail and international channels, Reuters previously reported. (Reporting by Echo Wang in New York; Writing by Dawn Kopecki; Editing by Jamie Freed)
Exclusive-SpaceX president Shotwell earned $85 million last year, document shows
NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters) - SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell earned $85.8 million in total compensation last year, a company prospectus showed, placing her among the highest‑paid U.S. executives. Shotwell, who is also chief operating officer, earned a salary of $1 million, with most of her compensation coming from stock options and awards, according to an excerpt of SpaceX's S‑1 filing. Companies use the registrationdocument to disclose their finances and risks before going public. Elon Musk's SpaceX has filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO, Reuters reported this month, paving the way for a potential record‑breaking listing valued at around $1.75 trillion. Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnson earned total compensation of $9.8 million, while billionaire CEO Musk, the majority shareholder in SpaceX, paid himself a salary of $54,080, the excerpt from the prospectus showed. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The compensation figures, which have not been previously reported, place Shotwell's pay above many other high-profile tech executives. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella earned $79 million in 2024, while Apple's Tim Cook took home $75 million, according to compensation data compiled by Equilar. Shotwell has a net worth of $3.4 billion, according to Forbes. Although Musk is the public face of SpaceX, 62‑year‑old Shotwell manages much of the company's day‑to‑day grind. That involves converting Musk's futuristic vision into the practical realities of manufacturing rockets, deploying satellites and lining up commercial, government and military customers. Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 as vice president of business development, becoming employee No. 7 at the then‑fledgling company. She has been a central behind‑the‑scenes figure in building demand for SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 rocket, as well as its Starlink satellite broadband constellation, which now generates the bulk of the company's revenue and profit. A mechanical engineer by training, Shotwell began her career at Chrysler Motors before moving into the space industry. (Reporting by Echo Wang; additional reporting by Chris Sanders; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Exclusive: SpaceX president Shotwell earned $85 million last year, document shows
NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters) - SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell earned $85.8 million in total compensation last year, a company prospectus showed, placing her among the highest‑paid U.S. executives. Shotwell, who is also chief operating officer, earned a salary of $1 million, with most of her compensation coming from stock options and awards, according to an excerpt of SpaceX's S‑1 filing. Companies use the registration document to disclose their finances and risks before going public. Elon Musk's SpaceX has filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO, Reuters reported this month, paving the way for a potential record‑breaking listing valued at around $1.75 trillion. Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnson earned total compensation of $9.8 million, while billionaire CEO Musk, the majority shareholder in SpaceX, paid himself a salary of $54,080, the excerpt from the prospectus showed. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The compensation figures, which have not been previously reported, place Shotwell's pay above many other high-profile tech executives. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella earned $79 million in 2024, while Apple's Tim Cook took home $75 million, according to compensation data compiled by Equilar. Shotwell has a net worth of $3.4 billion, according to Forbes. Although Musk is the public face of SpaceX, 62‑year‑old Shotwell manages much of the company's day‑to‑day grind. That involves converting Musk's futuristic vision into the practical realities of manufacturing rockets, deploying satellites and lining up commercial, government and military customers. Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 as vice president of business development, becoming employee No. 7 at the then‑fledgling company. She has been a central behind‑the‑scenes figure in building demand for SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 rocket, as well as its Starlink satellite broadband constellation, which now generates the bulk of the company's revenue and profit. A mechanical engineer by training, Shotwell began her career at Chrysler Motors before moving into the space industry. Reporting by Echo Wang; additional reporting by Chris Sanders; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Clarence Fernandez Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Echo Wang Thomson Reuters Echo Wang is a correspondent at Reuters covering U.S. equity capital markets, and the intersection of Chinese business in the U.S, breaking news from U.S. crackdown on TikTok and Grindr, to restrictions Chinese companies face in listing in New York. She was the Reuters' Reporter of the Year in 2020.
Amazon bets $25 billion on Anthropic as part of $100 billion cloud deal
In a major push to cement its position in the artificial intelligence (AI) race, Amazon said on Tuesday it will invest up to $25 billion in AI startup Anthropic, as part of a sweeping cloud agreement worth more than $100 billion over the next decade. The deal will see Anthropic commit to spending heavily on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build and run its AI models, giving Amazon a crucial long-term customer even as competition intensifies among cloud and AI giants. Amazon said it will invest $5 billion immediately, with an additional $20 billion tied to performance milestones. This adds to the $8 billion it has already invested in the startup. Cloud at the centre of the AI race At the heart of the partnership is infrastructure. Anthropic, the maker of the Claude AI models, will rely on AWS for large-scale computing power, including Amazon's custom-built Trainium chips and Graviton processors. The startup plans to secure up to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity -- underlining the massive energy and infrastructure demands of next-generation AI systems. For Amazon, the deal reinforces its strategy of focusing on the backbone of the AI boom: cloud computing and chips, rather than just competing on end-user AI models. Amazon's high-stakes AI strategy While rivals like OpenAI and Google have captured consumer attention with headline-grabbing AI tools, Amazon has leaned into its strength as a cloud provider. The company is ramping up capital expenditure -- expected to touch around $200 billion this year -- largely to expand AI infrastructure. It is also backing multiple AI players, including a separate multi-billion-dollar commitment to OpenAI earlier this year. CEO Andy Jassy said Anthropic's deepening use of Trainium chips reflects growing confidence in Amazon's in-house silicon, which is designed to lower the cost of training and running AI models. Scaling up fast For Anthropic, the agreement secures critical capacity at a time of rapid growth. The company said demand for its AI services has surged sharply in 2026, straining existing infrastructure. CEO Dario Amodei said the expanded partnership will help the company scale its models while maintaining performance and reliability for users. The deal also includes plans to expand AI services across Asia and Europe, reflecting rising global demand.
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Exclusive-SpaceX president Shotwell earned $85 million last year, document shows By Reuters
NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters) - SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell earned $85.8 million in total compensation last year, a company prospectus showed, placing her among the highest‑paid U.S. executives. Shotwell, who is also chief operating officer, earned a salary of $1 million, with most of her compensation coming from stock options and awards, according to an excerpt of SpaceX's S‑1 filing. Companies use the registration document to disclose their finances and risks before going public. Elon Musk's SpaceX has filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO, Reuters reported this month, paving the way for a potential record‑breaking listing valued at around $1.75 trillion. Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnson earned total compensation of $9.8 million, while billionaire CEO Musk, the majority shareholder in SpaceX, paid himself a salary of $54,080, the excerpt from the prospectus showed. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The compensation figures, which have not been previously reported, place Shotwell's pay above many other high-profile tech executives. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella earned $79 million in 2024, while Apple's Tim Cook took home $75 million, according to compensation data compiled by Equilar. Shotwell has a net worth of $3.4 billion, according to Forbes. Although Musk is the public face of SpaceX, 62‑year‑old Shotwell manages much of the company's day‑to‑day grind. That involves converting Musk's futuristic vision into the practical realities of manufacturing rockets, deploying satellites and lining up commercial, government and military customers. Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 as vice president of business development, becoming employee No. 7 at the then‑fledgling company. She has been a central behind‑the‑scenes figure in building demand for SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 rocket, as well as its Starlink satellite broadband constellation, which now generates the bulk of the company's revenue and profit. A mechanical engineer by training, Shotwell began her career at Chrysler Motors before moving into the space industry.
Who is Anthropic Chief Product Officer Mike Krieger and why did he resign from the Figma board? All you need to know
Mike Krieger has stepped down from the Figma board. This move follows reports of Anthropic's new AI model, Opus 4.7. The model is expected to include design tools. This directly competes with Figma's core business. AI is increasingly entering the design software market. This signals a major shift in the tech industry. In a move underscoring the intensifying clash between artificial intelligence and traditional software, Mike Krieger, Chief Product Officer of Anthropic, has stepped down from the board of Figma. The resignation comes as a report by The Information reveals that Anthropic's upcoming Opus 4.7 model is expected to feature built-in design tools, directly challenging Figma's core business and signaling AI's growing push into the design software space. The resignation, disclosed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on April 14, 2026, marks a significant shift in the relationship between two leading technology companies that had previously worked closely together on AI integration. This development points to a broader strategic realignment, as AI labs expand beyond language models into more specialized software domains. As a result, the technology industry is beginning to grapple with deeper questions about where the lines will be drawn between AI platforms and traditional software companies. Figma, valued at approximately $10 billion as a publicly traded firm, has built industry-standard tools widely used by user experience designers to create interfaces for websites and applications. The company had previously maintained a close working relationship with Anthropic, integrating the lab's models into its products to serve as intelligent design assistants. Mike Krieger: Background Mike Krieger stepped down as the Chief Product Officer at Anthropic. Prior to his stint in the top role, he was the co-founder and CEO of Artifact, a tool for recommending news to readers (bought by Yahoo), according to Signal Fire. He was also the co-founder & CEO of Instagram, apparently the fastest-growing app of all time with its reach to over 800 million monthly users. Krieger pursued his higher education at Stanford University, where he developed a strong interdisciplinary foundation. He completed a Bachelor of Science in Symbolic Systems, studying a blend of Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Philosophy, and Computer Science from 2004 to 2008, according to his LinkedIn. He went on to earn a Master of Science in Symbolic Systems with a specialization in Human-Computer Interaction from 2007 to 2008, further deepening his understanding of how technology and human behavior intersect.
Amazon to invest up to $25 billion in Anthropic as part of $100 billion cloud deal
Amazon said on Monday that it will invest up to $25 billion in Anthropic, as the AI startup commits to spending more than $100 billion over the next 10 years on Amazon's cloud technologies. The deal deepens the two firms' relationship as Anthropic rushes to secure capacity to bolster its models. Seattle-based Amazon will invest $5 billion in Anthropic now, and an additional $20 billion in the future, subject to certain commercial milestones. This is in addition to the $8 billion Amazon previously invested in the company. Amazon has struggled to generate buzz around its own AI models, such as Nova, while continuing to be a leader in providing critical infrastructure for the AI boom, such as cloud computing power. Amazon said it anticipates around $200 billion this year on capital expenditures, largely for AI development. Amazon is also making big bets on the largest AI startups. The new investment in Anthropic, the creator of Claude, follows Amazon's announcement earlier this year it would invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. In a statement, Anthropic said it expected to bring roughly 1 gigawatt of capacity via Trainium2 and Trainium3 chips by year-end. Anthropic ultimately expects to secure up to 5 gigawatts of such capacity. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement that Anthropic's use of Trainium chips "reflects the progress we've made together on custom silicon." Anthropic is aiming to pull ahead in the AI race with model releases focusing on coding and design, while Amazon seeks customers for its custom silicon chips built for artificial intelligence training and inference. Amazon shares rose around 2.7% in extended trading.
Amazon Plans to Invest up to $25 Billion in Anthropic
AI company Anthropic and cloud giant Amazon have agreed on a far-reaching partnership that could further shift the balance of power in the race for artificial intelligence. At the center is an infrastructure agreement worth more than 100 billion US dollars, along with a fresh capital injection of five billion dollars. Notably, Amazon had only just concluded a similarly structured deal with rival OpenAI in February 2026. The Key Points of the Deal Anthropic commits to investing more than 100 billion US dollars in AWS technologies over the next ten years. In return, the company gains access to up to five gigawatts of new computing capacity for training and operating its AI model Claude. Significant capacity is expected to be available as early as the second quarter of 2026, with nearly one gigawatt anticipated by year's end. Amazon, for its part, is immediately investing five billion US dollars in Anthropic, with the option for up to 20 additional billion in the future. Combined with earlier investments since 2023, Amazon's total commitment to Anthropic amounts to up to 33 billion US dollars. Amazon's Dual Strategy: OpenAI and Anthropic The new deal fits into a striking strategy by Amazon to simultaneously invest in the two leading AI labs. As recently as February 2026, Amazon participated with 50 billion US dollars in a funding round that valued OpenAI at 730 billion US dollars. That deal, too, was partly structured as cloud infrastructure services rather than a pure capital transfer. Amazon is thus positioning itself as an indispensable infrastructure partner for the entire AI industry, regardless of which company ultimately prevails. For the corporation, such agreements offer a dual advantage: capital returns through equity stakes and, at the same time, revenue through its own cloud platform AWS. Why Anthropic Is Acting Now The deal is also driven by concrete operational pressure. Anthropic's revenue has risen dramatically in a short period of time, from around nine billion US dollars at the end of 2025 to now more than 30 billion US dollars on an annualized basis. This growth has pushed the existing infrastructure to its limits. "Our users tell us that Claude is becoming increasingly indispensable to their work, and we need to build the infrastructure to keep pace with rapidly growing demand." (Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic) In particular, the coding tool Claude Code has gained significant popularity this year, repeatedly causing outages and performance degradation, especially during peak hours. The company acknowledged that unprecedented growth in the consumer segment had affected reliability across all user tiers. Technological Focus: Amazon's Own Chips A central element of the agreement is the use of Amazon's proprietary semiconductors. The agreement explicitly covers the chip generations Trainium2 through Trainium4, with Trainium4 not yet available. Anthropic already operates more than one million Trainium2 chips for training and running Claude. "Our custom AI chips offer customers high performance at significantly lower costs, which is why they are in such strong demand." (Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon) For Amazon, the partnership is also a strategic means of establishing its own chips as a credible alternative to Nvidia's dominant GPUs. Anthropic is considered one of the most important customers for the Trainium series. Context: Circular Deals as a New Model The agreement follows a pattern that is becoming increasingly common in the AI industry: AI companies receive investments from cloud providers and purchase computing capacity from those same providers. Critics speak of circular deals that could obscure the true financial strength of the companies involved. Anthropic has concluded several such agreements in recent weeks. In early April, a similar deal with Google and Broadcom was announced, intended to secure an additional approximately five gigawatts of capacity over the coming years. Together with the Amazon deal, Anthropic now has a diversified hardware strategy designed to make the company less dependent on any single provider. Outlook Whether the deal should also be understood as a harbinger of a new funding round remains to be seen. According to reports, venture capitalists have recently offered Anthropic capital at a valuation of 800 billion US dollars or more. The company has not accepted such offers so far. What is certain: with a current valuation of 380 billion US dollars, revenue growth of more than 200 percent within just a few months, and now secured infrastructure for a decade, Anthropic has further cemented its place among the world's leading AI companies.
Exclusive-SpaceX Tries to Woo Wall Street With Three-Day Analyst Meeting This Week, Sources Say
NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters) - SpaceX is moving ahead with plans for one of the most anticipated IPOs in history as it hosts analysts this week for three days of closed-door meetings at its launch facility in Texas and mega-sized data center in Tennessee, according to three people familiar with the matter. Elon Musk's company is holding the briefings for Wall Street's top aerospace and technology analysts as it looks to raise $75 billion, in what would be the world's biggest-ever IPO, with executives targeting a late June trading debut. The presentations kick off with an all-day meeting and analyst tour on Tuesday at the satellite and rocket maker's Starbase launch facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, the people said. Another group of analysts representing institutional investors, including big mutual funds and pension plans, will be briefed in a separate session at Starbase on Wednesday, the people said. On Thursday, the analysts have been invited to review the company's "Macrohard" project at its Colossus data center in Memphis, Tennessee, they added. Attendees are expected to surrender electronic devices to participate in the meetings, one of the people said. All three spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not public. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. Reuters was the first to report on the plans to host analysts earlier this month. The inclusion of Starbase on the tour and the three days of briefings have not been reported previously. IPO PROCESS Analyst days are a standard part of the IPO process, in which companies brief analysts on their business, financial outlook and long-term strategy ahead of a public listing. Some of the analysts scheduled to attend have also received copies of SpaceX's confidential registration filing, though the document contained limited information, two of the people said. Generally, IPO registration statements include a company's business description, financial statements, risk factors, how it plans to use the money it raises as well as details on major existing shareholders. About two weeks after the analyst days, SpaceX is expected to hold a separate "modeling" day for a select group of Wall Street analysts, some of whose banks are working on the deal, two of the people said. At such sessions, companies typically walk analysts through their financial projections, business thesis and the other key data that will help analysts calculate their earnings estimates before the listing. SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen has about two months to convince some of Wall Street's top analysts - and ultimately investors - that the company is worth an almost unfathomable $1.75 trillion. Musk merged xAI with SpaceX in February, bringing together the billionaire's rockets, Starlink satellites, the X social media platform and Grok AI chatbot under one roof. The combination created a tech and aerospace conglomerate like no other, but it also makes valuing SpaceX tricky. To justify the $75 billion Musk hopes to raise as well as the lofty valuation, at least one large institutional investor has been using unusual benchmarks to explain the math, Reuters previously reported. Rather than comparing SpaceX to legacy aerospace and telecom giants like Boeing and AT&T, that investor has been benchmarking it against Palantir Technologies and artificial intelligence infrastructure companies like GE Vernova and Vertiv -- a framework described to Reuters by a person familiar with the valuation discussions. RETAIL INVESTORS Musk also plans to reward the retail investors who have sent shares of electric vehicle company Tesla to illogical heights, trading at a valuation closer to a tech company than an automaker. He is planning to set aside some 30% of SpaceX shares for retail investors, hosting 1,500 of them to tour Starbase after the roadshow kicks off during the week of June 8, people familiar with the matter previously told Reuters. Musk is also opening up initial share sales to international retail investors from the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, Japan and Korea, Reuters previously reported. The structure of the deal and precise amount of the retail allocation are expected to be finalized closer to the IPO launch. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are leading the deal as active bookrunners, with 16 other banks in smaller roles spanning institutional, retail and international channels, Reuters previously reported. (Reporting by Echo Wang in New York; Writing by Dawn Kopecki; Editing by Jamie Freed)
SpaceX tries to woo Wall Street with three-day analyst meeting this week
Another group of analysts representing institutional investors, including big mutual funds and pension plans, will be briefed in a separate session at Starbase on Wednesday, the people said. On Thursday, the analysts have been invited to review the company's "Macrohard" project at its Colossus data center in Memphis, Tennessee, they added. NEW YORK: SpaceX is moving ahead with plans for one of the most anticipated IPOs in history as it hosts analysts this week for three days of closed-door meetings at its launch facility in Texas and mega-sized data center in Tennessee, according to three people familiar with the matter. Elon Musk's company is holding the briefings for Wall Street's top aerospace and technology analysts as it looks to raise $75 billion, in what would be the world's biggest-ever IPO, with executives targeting a late June trading debut. The presentations kick off with an all-day meeting and analyst tour on Tuesday at the satellite and rocket maker's Starbase launch facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, the people said. Another group of analysts representing institutional investors, including big mutual funds and pension plans, will be briefed in a separate session at Starbase on Wednesday, the people said. On Thursday, the analysts have been invited to review the company's "Macrohard" project at its Colossus data center in Memphis, Tennessee, they added. Attendees are expected to surrender electronic devices to participate in the meetings, one of the people said. All three spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not public. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. Reuters was the first to report on the plans to host analysts earlier this month. The inclusion of Starbase on the tour and the three days of briefings have not been reported previously. IPO PROCESS Analyst days are a standard part of the IPO process, in which companies brief analysts on their business, financial outlook and long-term strategy ahead of a public listing. Some of the analysts scheduled to attend have also received copies of SpaceX's confidential registration filing, though the document contained limited information, two of the people said. Generally, IPO registration statements include a company's business description, financial statements, risk factors, how it plans to use the money it raises as well as details on major existing shareholders. About two weeks after the analyst days, SpaceX is expected to hold a separate "modeling" day for a select group of Wall Street analysts, some of whose banks are working on the deal, two of the people said. At such sessions, companies typically walk analysts through their financial projections, business thesis and the other key data that will help analysts calculate their earnings estimates before the listing. SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen has about two months to convince some of Wall Street's top analysts - and ultimately investors - that the company is worth an almost unfathomable $1.75 trillion. Musk merged xAI with SpaceX in February, bringing together the billionaire's rockets, Starlink satellites, the X social media platform and Grok AI chatbot under one roof. The combination created a tech and aerospace conglomerate like no other, but it also makes valuing SpaceX tricky. To justify the $75 billion Musk hopes to raise as well as the lofty valuation, at least one large institutional investor has been using unusual benchmarks to explain the math, Reuters previously reported. Rather than comparing SpaceX to legacy aerospace and telecom giants like Boeing and AT&T, that investor has been benchmarking it against Palantir Technologies and artificial intelligence infrastructure companies like GE Vernova and Vertiv - a framework described to Reuters by a person familiar with the valuation discussions. RETAIL INVESTORS Musk also plans to reward the retail investors who have sent shares of electric vehicle company Tesla to illogical heights, trading at a valuation closer to a tech company than an automaker. He is planning to set aside some 30% of SpaceX shares for retail investors, hosting 1,500 of them to tour Starbase after the roadshow kicks off during the week of June 8, people familiar with the matter previously told Reuters. Musk is also opening up initial share sales to international retail investors from the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, Japan and Korea, Reuters previously reported. The structure of the deal and precise amount of the retail allocation are expected to be finalized closer to the IPO launch. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are leading the deal as active bookrunners, with 16 other banks in smaller roles spanning institutional, retail and international channels, Reuters previously reported.
SpaceX president Shotwell earned $85 million last year, document shows
Elon Musk's SpaceX has filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO, Reuters reported this month, paving the way for a potential record-breaking listing valued at around $1.75 trillion. NEW YORK: SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell earned $85.8 million in total compensation last year, a company prospectus showed, placing her among the highest-paid U.S. executives. Shotwell, who is also chief operating officer, earned a salary of $1 million, with most of her compensation coming from stock options and awards, according to an excerpt of SpaceX's S-1 filing. Companies use the registration document to disclose their finances and risks before going public. Elon Musk's SpaceX has filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO, Reuters reported this month, paving the way for a potential record-breaking listing valued at around $1.75 trillion. Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnson earned total compensation of $9.8 million, while billionaire CEO Musk, the majority shareholder in SpaceX, paid himself a salary of $54,080, the excerpt from the prospectus showed. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The compensation figures, which have not been previously reported, place Shotwell's pay above many other high-profile tech executives. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella earned $79 million in 2024, while Apple's Tim Cook took home $75 million, according to compensation data compiled by Equilar. Shotwell has a net worth of $3.4 billion, according to Forbes. Although Musk is the public face of SpaceX, 62-year-old Shotwell manages much of the company's day-to-day grind. That involves converting Musk's futuristic vision into the practical realities of manufacturing rockets, deploying satellites and lining up commercial, government and military customers. Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 as vice president of business development, becoming employee No. 7 at the then-fledgling company. She has been a central behind-the-scenes figure in building demand for SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 rocket, as well as its Starlink satellite broadband constellation, which now generates the bulk of the company's revenue and profit. A mechanical engineer by training, Shotwell began her career at Chrysler Motors before moving into the space industry.
Amazon Doubles Down On Anthropic With $5 Billion Fresh Injection & 6GW Of Trainium Chip Capacity For Claude AI Models
Anthropic has just landed a multi-Gigawatt deal with Amazon, where it would train & deploy its Claude models on Trainium chips through 2026. Amazon Is Investing Over $20B in Anthropic, While Also Supplying 6GW of Trainum Chips To Anthropic Last week, Anthropic launched its Claude Opus 4.7 models, bringing faster AI capabilities such as Agentic workflows. Today, Anthropic announced that it is collaborating with Amazon to secure additional capacity for its AI models. The new deal will give Anthropic access to multi-Gigawatt worth of compute capacity. For the first half of 2026, Anthropic will secure up to 5GW of compute capacity for training and deploying Claude. These will mainly include Amazon's Trainium2 capacity. Anthropic will further install an additional 1GW capacity featuring both Trainium2 and Trainium3 chips by the end of 2026. We have signed a new agreement with Amazon that will deepen our existing partnership and secure up to 5 gigawatts (GW) of capacity for training and deploying Claude, including new Trainium2 capacity coming online in the first half of this year and nearly 1GW total of Trainium2 and Trainium3 capacity coming online by the end of 2026. We have worked closely with Amazon since 2023 and over 100,000 customers now run Claude on Amazon Bedrock. Together we launched Project Rainier, one of the largest compute clusters in the world, and we currently use over one million Trainium2 chips to train and serve Claude. Today's agreement expands our collaboration in three ways. Anthropic Anthropic already uses over a million Trainium2 chips to train and serve its Claude models at Project Rainer, one of the largest compute clusters in the world. With the renewed agreement, this project is seeing a massive overhaul. This also aligns with Amazon CEO's recent statement that Graviton and Trainium demand is booming in the AI sector. Anthropic is also rumored to utilize AMD's MI450 AI accelerators. Just in terms of cost, Anthropic is committing over $100 billion over the next 10 years to Amazon's AWS technology services. The expansion plan spans various Amazon chips such as Trainium2, Trainium3, and Trainium4. Anthropic will also have the option to purchase future generations of Amazon's custom silicon as they are deployed. The deal also helps Anthropic to meet the growing needs of its Claude customer base in other regions such as Asia and Europe. Besides the deployment of Trainium chips, Amazon is also investing $5 billion in Anthropic today, and an additional $20 billion is planned in the future. This builds on the $8 billion Amazon has already invested in the firm. Coming back to its Claude Opus 4.7 models, Anthropic has stated that while the new AI model is not as capable as the Mythos preview, the new Opus model is being used to test the cybersecurity capabilities & will be used as a test before broadly deploying Mythos. Recently, there have been reports that the NSA has been using Claude Mythos despite being tagged as a "supply chain risk". NSA will be among the 40 or so organizations that have been given access to Mythos in its preview state. Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
SpaceX's $1.75 trln hope rests on Musk imagination
NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The largest initial public offering in the universe comes with galactic question marks. Elon Musk has decided that SpaceX should be worth $1.75 trillion when it sells shares to public investors. Yet its rocket, satellite and artificial intelligence businesses at best explain a bit more than half that sum. To justify the astronomical price tag, the company and its investment bankers can only point to the tech tycoon's imagination. SpaceX's IPO filing is still confidential, so financial information about the company's performance remains sparse. The basic details which have dribbled out aren't impressive enough to justify the hoopla. Revenue exceeded $18 billion last year while the business made a net loss of $5 billion, The Information reported, opens new tab, citing two people familiar with the figures. In simple terms, the mooted IPO price implies a stellar multiple of about 100 times historical revenue for a company still deeply in the red. Some unusual IPO wheezes might tempt investors to climb on board. SpaceX aims to sell shares worth $75 billion, an uncommonly small proportion of less than 5% of the company's overall value, while allocating an atypically large chunk of up to 30% of the shares to retail investors. Index providers are tweaking inclusion rules so that passive funds will add SpaceX shares to their portfolios sooner than normal, further juicing demand. Eventually, though, investors will decide whether SpaceX's business and prospects justify the valuation. To tackle that question, it helps to think about the company as containing four buckets. SpaceX makes rockets, runs satellite network Starlink, and - following a merger earlier this year - owns the AI firm xAI. The fourth pail contains Musk's imagination. Start with rockets. Musk claims SpaceX carries 90% of all mass currently being thrust into orbit. It has gained this position by reducing costs through efficient manufacturing and improved launch vehicles. It currently charges around $1,500 per kilo to bring an object to orbit. Musk's goal is to lop a zero off that figure and tap new markets with its newest rocket, which is undergoing tests. Putting a figure on that extra demand is tricky. While the number of launches increased by nearly a quarter last year to a record 165, most of the increase came from Musk's own satellites. Lower costs may attract more would-be space explorers. But rocket revenue was perhaps $4 billion last year and SpaceX has historically run the business at around breakeven. Rival Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), opens new tab is valued at two times estimated revenue. Even if the unit's growth prospects deserve a much higher multiple of, say, five times revenue, the resulting $20 billion price tag is a rounding error in SpaceX's valuation. The rocket business is, however, a critical underpinning for the company's satellite network, which provides connectivity in hard-to-reach parts of the world. Starlink is projected to collect $20 billion of revenue this year, estimates researcher Quilty, over 50% more than it earned in 2025. One way to think about Starlink is as a pioneer in a new communications market. Back in 1990, mobile phone operators were growing quickly and highly profitable. At the time, Vodafone was valued at about eight times revenue. The comparison is imperfect, as Starlink's margins after accounting for satellite depreciation are unknown. Yet the unit has yet to face real competition; Amazon.com's (AMZN.O), opens new tab rival LEO service will not start until this summer. Musk may therefore have the dominant position in what could be a bigger market. Generously assume that this business merits a multiple of 32 times historical revenue and it would be worth around $640 billion. Finally there's xAI, which last year absorbed Musk's X social network. It burned about $8 billion in nine months of last year according to Bloomberg, opens new tab, though it still lags rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic. Valuing these startups is a guessing game, but assume xAI is worth the $250 billion value that Musk put on the business when he merged it with SpaceX. The IPO prospectus will have up-to-date financial data, and information on margins, depreciation, and capital expenditure. Even so, those disclosures are unlikely to change the big picture, which is that SpaceX's existing businesses explain little more than half the mooted $1.75 trillion valuation. The real excitement for investors lies in Musk's fantastical ideas. Locating data centers in space, for example, has the appeal of limitless solar power. Musk said in January that server farms in orbit could become more cost effective than the terrestrial varieties in "two to three years, opens new tab". SpaceX has filed plans, opens new tab with the U.S. government to operate a data center composed of up to 1 million satellites. Assume 100 kilowatts per satellite, and that's about 10% of the world's current data center capacity according to McKinsey, opens new tab estimates. If the space-based version is cheaper, there's room for growth. Yet the cost of lifting a solar panel into space currently exceeds the value of the electricity it would generate. Google estimated, opens new tab in 2025 that launch costs would have to fall below $200 a kilogram for power in space to be as cheap as it is on Earth. That's well below SpaceX's current costs. The cost of cooling is also hefty, while the unforgiving environment means depreciation is rapid. But what if? This is the question underpinning SpaceX. Driving down launch costs could make this and projects like zero-gravity manufacturing, space tourism, and asteroid mining feasible. These dreams may never become economically attractive. Indeed, the value to Musk may lie in their unreality. Take colonizing Mars, which prompted him to start SpaceX. Sending humans 140 million miles to a world with a non-breathable atmosphere, deadly radiation and climate colder than Antarctica would be fantastically expensive. Musk has estimated a thousand-fold improvement in rocket technology might lower the price tag to $1 trillion. Assume in 100 years Mars is worth $70 trillion, or about the value of all listed U.S. stocks today. Apply a discount rate of 10% and the endeavor's present value is roughly zero. Even so, the project may motivate engineers and some investors. Musk has a record of persuading public markets to support futuristic ideas. Tesla's value is $1.3 trillion, not because shareholders expect vastly more electric vehicle sales, but mostly due to hopes Musk will deliver humanoid robots and autonomous-driving cars. It's unclear when either will arrive, or how big those markets might be. But Tesla investors pay up for prospect and shrug off delay after delay. They may be willing to suspend their disbelief for SpaceX. Eventually, however, Musk's bucket of dreams will need to contain something. Follow Robert Cyran on Bluesky, opens new tab. Context News* SpaceX plans to have a two-day meeting with analysts starting April 21. Elon Musk's company is seeking to sell $75 billion of stock in an initial public offering valuing the satellite, rocket and AI firm at $1.75 trillion. Editing by Peter Thal Larsen; Production by Maya Nandhini * Suggested Topics: * Breakingviews Breakingviews Reuters Breakingviews is the world's leading source of agenda-setting financial insight. As the Reuters brand for financial commentary, we dissect the big business and economic stories as they break around the world every day. A global team of about 30 correspondents in New York, London, Hong Kong and other major cities provides expert analysis in real time. Sign up for a free trial of our full service at https://www.breakingviews.com/trial and follow us on X @Breakingviews and at www.breakingviews.com. All opinions expressed are those of the authors. Robert Cyran Thomson Reuters Robert Cyran, U.S. tech columnist, joined Breakingviews in London in 2003 and moved four years later to New York, where he continues to cover global technology, pharmaceuticals and special situations. Robert began his career at Forbes magazine, where he assisted in the startup of the international version of the magazine. Before working at Breakingviews he worked as a market researcher and reporter covering the pharmaceutical industry. Robert has a Masters degree in economics from Birmingham University and an undergraduate degree from George Washington University.
