DeepSeek just raised $7.4B at a $50B valuation 🇨🇳and there's no cap table access. It's structured through an SPV, no voting rights, no board seats. CEO Liang Wenfeng put in $3B of his own money and controls the vehicle.
Meanwhile Anthropic is trading above $1T on the secondary market despite Mythos getting staged by the government, and SpaceX just locked in its Nasdaq 100 slot with a $2T valuation on a float of only ~6%.
Plus: Michael O'Keefe of CAZ Investments breaks down how a $12B GP stakes portfolio actually gets built.
00:00 – cold open
00:54 – [ tech and vc news ]
02:33 – SpaceX joins Nasdaq-100 🚀
08:39 – Anthropic hits $1T valuation & IPO outlook 💸
14:45 – OpenAI builds its own chip + 2027 IPO delay 🤖
18:07 – AI memory demand surges (Micron wins, Apple/customers pay more) 💾
20:24 – Cerebras falls below its IPO price 📉
22:46 – AI token costs rising; customers shift to Chinese open-weight models 🔄
28:24 – Bending Spoons targets ~$19–20B IPO on profitable roll-up strategy 🥄
32:56 – [ intvw: Michael O’Keefe @ CAZ ]
33:22 – CAZ manages $12B AUM 💰
36:04 – What is GP stake investing? 📊
44:19 – Typical check sizes & fund sizes
45:45 – How GP stakes are valued 📈
56:52 – Where CAZ is investing today: AI, energy, sports 🤖
1:00:05 – The secondary market boom 🔥
1:02:45 – [ valuation corner: DeepSeek @ $50B ]
1:03:40 – Largest seed round ever? 🏆
1:04:45 – SPV mechanics & stockholder structure 🛠️
1:07:40 – Users and revenue growth 📈
1:10:25 – DeepSeek vs. OpenAI comparison 🆚
[ links ]
[ invest = https://practicalvc.com ]
[ trading places socials = www.linktr.ee/tradingplacespod ]
[ michael o’keefe = https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjoii/ | https://cazinvestments.com/ ]
[ aman verjee = https://www.linkedin.com/in/aman-verjee | https://x.com/amanverjee ]
[ dave mcclure = https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemcclure | https://x.com/davemcclure ]
Thank you for watching
#tradingplacespodcast #SpaceX #ClaraVydyanath #davemcclure #SpaceXIPO
