The Economist.
Hello, Mike Bird here, co-host of Money Talks, our weekly podcast on markets, the economy and business.
Welcome to Editor's Picks.
We've chosen an article from the latest edition of The Economist, which we very much hope you'll enjoy.
If there has been a common narrative around artificial intelligence this year,
it is that advances in the technology are shaking up the vast and hitherto cosy world of software.
In order to keep this blitzkrieg going,
the labs at the forefront of AI need to raise enormous amounts of money.
That has set the stage for three colossal initial public offerings, or IPOs, in a single year.
Those of OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, Anthropic, under Dario Amodi,
and SpaceX, run by Elon Musk, which has merged with XAI, his model maker.
Adding to the free song, the trio hate each other.
All three are aiming for the stratosphere.
OpenAI, which was recently valued at $840 billion, is said to be looking for a price tag of $1 trillion,
or 40 times its current annualised revenue.
Anthropic, last valued at $380 billion, a multiple of around 20 times its annualised sales,
will probably be priced at upwards of $500 billion.
Most ambitious of all is SpaceX, which was valued at $1.25 trillion
when it merged with XAI and is reportedly seeking to list at $1.5 trillion.
That would put it squarely among the world's 10 most valuable listed firms