News

As AI companies race to go public, who else is along for the ride?

Published

1 month ago

June 14, 2026

Preport

SpaceX went public this week in the largest IPO ever, making CEO Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire.

Despite its name, SpaceX has been emphasizing the potential of its costly AI business, and competitors OpenAI and Anthropic may soon follow with their own public market debuts. So on the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and I discussed what’s looking like a hot IPO summer.

“We have SpaceX not only sucking up just a huge chunk of the money that’s available on public markets, but also really stress testing the limits of what a public company can be and how much it can be controlled by one single person,” Sean said. “My eye is really on these other tech companies that will go public and how much they will try to emulate.”

Kirsten also noted that there are other startups trying to “ride that SpaceX IPO wave,” for example by raising money for orbital data centers after SpaceX helped to popularize the concept.

“So there’s a ripple effect that’s happening throughout the market that I think is probably even more interesting than just the headline, ‘SpaceX makes Elon a trillionaire,’” she said.

Keep reading for a preview of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Anthony Ha: I want to zoom out a little bit from just the SpaceX IPO, because beyond the Elon Musk of it all, it’s the beginning of what could be a [series] of different IPOs for different AI companies. We’ve talked about Anthropic confidentially filing to go public, and now OpenAI has done the same. How excited are either of you about this?

Kirsten Korosec: I want to start off by saying that I love Julie Bort’s story, which I think sums it up pretty nicely. It’s a great headline, so I’m gonna read it here: “It’s not FAANG anymore, it’s MANGOS.” FAANG being Facebook, which is now Meta; Amazon; Apple; Netflix; Google, now Alphabet.

Now it’s shifted, and we’ve got Meta, Anthropic, NVIDIA, Google, OpenAI, SpaceX. [We’ve still got] massive tech companies, surely, but there is a shift here, right? First of all, we’ve got a bunch of AI labs in there, and that’s very different. Netflix gets booted out of there, a giant streaming service. And so to me, it’s an interesting shift in terms of public markets and the vast amount of money and capital available in the public markets shifting away from consumer [and] social networks and towards, specifically, AI labs and other, more innovative deeptech, such as SpaceX.

So I think that’s the most interesting thing — aside from the fact that this summer is going to keep us all very busy as reporters, more than probably any other summer in a while.

Sean O’Kane: You know, once upon a time I wanted to be a lawyer, and one of the reasons I didn’t was because I hated the paperwork that was going to be involved. And here I am looking forward to reading hundreds more pages of SEC filings this summer — talk about a beach read.

It’s a moment we’ve been anticipating for a while. We’ve spent the last few years really wondering if the IPO market was going to quote-unquote “open back up” after a lot of consternation about private markets, and mockery about people reaching their like Series [whatever] fundraising round. This is a good stress test — I mean, “good,” take that word however you want — a good stress test of public markets in general.

We have SpaceX not only sucking up just a huge chunk of the money that’s available on public markets, but also really stress testing the limits of what a public company can be and how much it can be controlled by one single person. My eye is really on these other tech companies that will go public and how much they will try to emulate.

A thing that I keep saying and thinking about with SpaceX is, they’re really trying to take some of the most extreme aspects of Google and Meta’s original IPOs back in the early 2000s and mashing it up with that “We’ll lose money forever” with Amazon. And I’m curious how much Anthropic and OpenAI will try to do the same. Will they remake themselves in the image of SpaceX? Or will they try to put themselves in a different light?

Anthony: One aspect that really got driven home as I was reading about the OpenAI IPO is also the extent to which some of this is also a bit of a race in terms of timing. I think we can confidently say at this point, SpaceX is first out the gate, which probably has some advantages and disadvantages. It’s also a bit of a different company because it’s billing itself as an AI company, but obviously has a bunch of other stuff going on, too.

But there is a sense in which, at least according to some analysts, OpenAI and Anthropic may both want to go before the other one, because there’s only a finite amount of capital, a finite amount of interest. At some point some of these valuations have to start coming back down to Earth, and so they may both be scrambling to be first.

Kirsten: I mean, there’s very much a race between Anthropic and OpenAI. You’re even seeing OpenAI talk about slashing prices, and they’re certainly going to be competing on the IPO calendar. But that is very short-term thinking. If they’re smart, they should be much more concerned about the long-term play here.

To me, what’s really interesting is while Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX all prepare for these moments, there are a host of other companies out there that are raising money on the backs of the success of companies like SpaceX, or going into SPACs. Just today, for instance, or as we’re recording this, a company called Quantum Space is doing a SPAC and absolutely trying to ride that SpaceX IPO wave.

We’ve got a host of other startups that our reporter Tim Ferholz has reported on that are clearly — they’re not going to go public, right? But if SpaceX is successful with space data centers, they’re raising money off of that potential and they’re building businesses on that potential. So there’s a ripple effect that’s happening throughout the market that I think is probably even more interesting than just the headline, “SpaceX makes Elon a trillionaire.”

Sean: The commonly accepted theory in Silicon Valley is that AI is remaking the economy, but because of its use. AI is actually already remaking the economy — just because of how people are trying to build it. We have everything that you just described, we have these other companies rushing to public markets. And I think that’s a really good point to think about: Will they ever regret rushing to public markets?

But we even have companies like Ford and General Motors who are pivoting their unused battery creation capacity to be energy providers for data centers. And Ford’s stock shot up when it announced what is honestly a pretty modest-looking energy storage business, in comparison to something like Tesla. And Tim De Chant had a really great series of stories this week about GM’s pivot, as well.

The economy’s already being remade. Whether that’s durable, again, that’s the question, but it’s happening right now.

Kirsten: That is actually a really good point, because to me, I want to say five, six, seven, eight years ago, there were all these headlines of “the next Tesla killer” and these automakers and other companies are still chasing trying to recreate all these various businesses, and specifically the strategies of Elon Musk-based businesses. They haven’t learned their lesson.

I wish I could communicate this to all the automaker CEOs out there: I get it that you have a lot of unused batteries and you want to pivot to something else, but trying to model your business after Tesla or SpaceX and others, it doesn’t always work. Perhaps look elsewhere.

Sean: So Ford shouldn’t get into space data centers. Is what you’re saying?

Kirsten: No, they shouldn’t. But just watch. This is going to happen.

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ADC aspirant drags party to court over alleged exclusion from primary election

Published

4 hours ago

July 17, 2026

Preport

An aspirant of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, for the Rivers State House of Assembly, Khana Constituency I seat, Legborsi Nwiabu, has taken his party before a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, alleging that he was excluded from the party’s last primary election.

Also named as respondents in the suit are the ADC’s declared candidate for the Khana Constituency I seat in the 2027 general election, Bright Nulee, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

When the matter came up for hearing on Friday, counsel to the ADC, Emenike Ebete, informed the court that a committee had been set up to resolve issues arising from the disputed primary and orally sought the court’s leave to allow the parties to settle the matter out of court.

The application was not opposed by counsel to the second and third respondents.

However, counsel to the plaintiff, Felix Beragbara, opposed the request, telling the court that his client had not been informed of any such committee.

The presiding judge, Justice Muhammed Turaki, after hearing submissions from both sides, granted leave for the parties to pursue an out-of-court settlement and adjourned the matter until August 12, 2026, for a report on the settlement or, alternatively, for hearing of the suit.

Addressing journalists outside the courtroom, Beragbara explained the circumstances that prompted his client to seek redress in court, adding that his client remained prepared to return to court should the committee fail to deliver justice in the matter.

“My client was cheated out of the primaries of his party, which were scheduled to be conducted on the 21st day of May 2026.

“You must be aware that almost all the political parties conducted their primaries in May 2026. My client’s political party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), also conducted its primaries, and my client was an aspirant seeking the party’s nomination for the House of Assembly seat for Khana Constituency I in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State.

“That election was scheduled to be held nationwide on the 21st of May 2026.

“Unfortunately, the election could not be held on that date. It was rescheduled—or purportedly rescheduled—to the next day, May 22, 2026. My client mobilised his supporters, sent his field agents, and deployed them to all the voting centres across the 11 wards that make up Khana Constituency I.

“My client and his supporters, who are members of the ADC, waited from the morning, when accreditation was scheduled to commence, until nightfall.

“They did not see a single ADC official who came to conduct the election. They also did not see any monitoring officer from the third defendant in this suit.

“So the first defendant, my client’s political party, failed to conduct the primaries. My client then petitioned the appeals committee, stating that the election did not hold and asking them to conduct another election so that the party could have a legitimate candidate.

“They ignored my client’s complaint. What my client later heard was that they had declared the second defendant, Mr Bright Nulee, as the party’s candidate and forwarded his name to the third defendant, INEC, without conducting the election.

“That is why my client is in court to challenge the purported primary that produced the purported candidate. That is why we are here today.”

Meanwhile, counsel to the ADC, Emenike Ebete; counsel to the second respondent, B. F. Opara; and counsel representing INEC all declined to comment on the court proceedings.

Health

Niger investigates suspected infectious disease after child’s death

Published

5 hours ago

July 17, 2026

Preport

The Niger State government has launched an investigation into a suspected infectious disease following the death of a child and reports that other members of the same family have fallen ill.

The state Director of Public Health, Ibrahim Idris, disclosed this in a statement issued in Minna on Thursday by the Ministry of Information and Orientation.

Mr Idris said the Ministry of Health responded after a father shared videos on social media alleging that a strange illness had affected members of his household.

He said the swift response demonstrated the state’s commitment to protecting residents through prompt public health action.

He said the prompt intervention reflected the commitment of the Governor Umaru Bago-led administration to safeguarding the health and well-being of residents across the state through timely public health responses.

According to him, every unexplained death deserves a thorough investigation, while every suspected outbreak must be treated with urgency to prevent possible transmission and protect public health.

The director said the affected children had been evacuated to a health facility for comprehensive medical evaluation and treatment as health authorities intensified efforts to determine the cause.

He said preliminary clinical findings suggested that the illness might not be a strange disease but one familiar to medical experts, with diphtheria among the conditions being considered.

“At this stage, no definitive conclusion can be made until laboratory investigations are completed,” he said.

“The samples collected will help determine the exact cause of the illness and guide the response.”

Mr Idris said public health officials had commenced contact tracing in the affected community and in the schools attended by the children to identify similar cases and contain any possible transmission.

He advised parents and caregivers to ensure their children completed all recommended routine immunisation schedules, noting that many life-threatening illnesses could be prevented through vaccination.

The director urged residents to seek prompt medical attention whenever unusual symptoms were observed, stressing that early detection and treatment remained critical to disease control efforts.

Also, Junaidu Inuwa, executive director of the Niger State Primary Health Care Development Agency (NSPHCDA), said preliminary findings showed the deceased child had received only partial immunisation.

He said some of the surviving children were either partially immunised or had not completed their vaccination schedules, exposing them to vaccine-preventable diseases and associated health complications.

ALSO READ: Niger Assembly has no website, limiting residents’ access to information

According to him, the development underscores the critical importance of routine immunisation in protecting children against vaccine-preventable diseases and reducing childhood mortality across communities.

Mr Inuwa said health officials also visited the isolation centre at the General Hospital, where affected family members had been placed on appropriate antibiotic treatment and were receiving care.

He said health authorities would continue to provide timely updates as investigations progressed and would intensify surveillance, contact tracing, and other interventions if the illness was confirmed to be infectious.

He reiterated that complete immunisation remained the safest and most effective protection against vaccine-preventable diseases and urged parents to utilise vaccination services available across the state. (NAN)