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It’s a good thing SpaceX is thinking of June for its upcoming IPO. There has to be a decent chance the current Iran war has ended by then, restoring some stability to the market. Then again, these hostilities could easily spread. Not only is the IPO market not necessarily safe, but there’s a cloud of uncertainty now hanging over the economy and business generally.
It certainly felt that way on Monday as the market teetered—falling sharply in the morning and then recovering in the afternoon after President Donald Trump made some upbeat comments about the war being nearly over. He knows a long war wouldn’t be good for business (except maybe for Palantir Technologies). The conflict has already sparked higher oil prices, which, if sustained, will hurt the argument for more Fed interest rate cuts. Some companies have had to take action to protect their local employees: Meta temporarily shuttered its Tel Aviv office over the weekend.. The situation is a bit reminiscent of 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted a pullback among advertisers, affecting digital ad companies such as Meta Platforms and Snap.
Of course, most of what hurt tech in 2022 was sharply rising interest rates, which walloped everyone in business. That scenario isn’t likely to be repeated this year. Still, there’s no getting around the fact that for companies planning to go public this year, such as SpaceX and possibly OpenAI, the market volatility would be a big problem if it continues.
Even without the ups and downs on Wall Street, both companies already face lots of questions. Elon Musk has complicated life for SpaceX by combining it with his money-losing AI firm. OpenAI is, well, OpenAI—the big-talking, big-spending firm with lots of plans, not all of which work out. As we wrote today, public market investors are a little skeptical about the company and its likely valuation. OpenAI, at least, has time. It doesn’t need to go public this year. Can the same be said for SpaceX?
Podcast Overflow
Is there anyone in business who doesn’t have a podcast? The New York Times reported today on Ari Emanuel, the high-profile Hollywood agent (and CEO of entertainment firm TKO), who has joined the ranks of podcasters. It’s an ever-growing group. Everyone from Stripe co-founder and president John Collison (host of “Cheeky Pint”) to LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman (“Masters of Scale”) and a bunch of investors (most obviously the “All-In” crew).
To be sure, there are still plenty of executives without podcasts. Elon Musk appears on enough of them that he probably doesn’t need his own. But given his liking for spouting his own views on his X platform, why not add a podcast? What about Mark Zuckerberg? His earnings call commentaries are always sharp. And we’d love to see Tim Cook grab the microphone and start interviewing people. (How “excited” would he be!) The sky’s the limit.
In Other News
• Anthropic is suing the U.S. Defense Department, challenging the department’s designation of the AI firm as a supply chain risk by focusing on the company’s free speech rights. The suit said the federal government had “retaliated” against Anthropic for expressing the principle that “the most capable artificial intelligence systems should also be the safest and most responsible.”
• Nearly 40 employees at OpenAI and Google, including Google DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean, have signed on to an amicus brief they submitted in court Monday in defense of Anthropic in its lawsuit against the Department of Defense for branding the company a “supply chain risk.”
• Microsoft will start selling a new subscription bundle for businesses that combines its Office 365 software with its Copilot AI chatbot for the first time starting in May, the company said Monday.
• A senior Tesla finance executive—Sendil Palani, vice president of finance—is leaving the company. He announced his departure in an X post on Monday. Palani started at Tesla in 2009.
Today on The Information’s TITV
Check today’s episode of TITV in which we unpack GPT-5.4’s traction and also the latest audio model OpenAI is working on.
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