In this episode of Trading Places, Dave McClure and Aman Verjee break down the week's biggest stories in tech and venture. First, the Fed's first rate hike under new chair Warsh and what >$90 oil could mean for the midterms.
Then they get into Anthropic moving its IPO to November, OpenAI's potential $1.2 trillion pre-IPO round, and Aman's theory on the real reason AI giants are calling for regulation. They also cover Nscale's neocloud IPO, the growth of European AI with Mistral and Cohere, and Meta's Muse agent passing ChatGPT in App Store downloads.
Dave then sits down with Dan Gray, research lead at Odin. Dan breaks down all current trends in venture, and provides a compelling bear case on upcoming AI IPOs. In Valuation Corner, Aman breaks down autonomous defense tech company Shield AI's reported $20B raise: how it compares to Anduril and Saronic, what its founders bring, and why investing in defense is trending right now.
1:06 - [ tech and vc news ]
3:29 - Fed rates jump to 4%, gas @ $4.50/gal
8:16 - Anthropic delays IPO; OpenAI raising @ $1.2T
12:00 - Does AI need govt regulation?
16:54 - Nscale files for IPO
20:45 - EU AI rising: Mistral @ $24B, Cohere @ $20B
24:07 - Gemini joins AI hacker club
25:33 - Meta launches AI agent Muse; Instinct raising @ $10B
33:47 - [ intvw: Dan Gray, research lead, Odin ]
39:48 - Venture has eaten the IPO
41:19 - Shifting VC strategies
58:45 - How AI could upend VC industry
1:13:39 - Contrarian take on upcoming AI IPOs
1:13:21 - [ valuation corner: Shield AI seeks $20B ]
1:17:08 - Impressive founding brothers
1:18:30 - Why VC defense investment is growing
1:22:18 - Breaking down world-wide defense budgets
Trading Places is the world's worst podcast about VC secondaries, private markets and high-growth technology companies.
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[ links ]
[ invest = https://practicalvc.com ] [ trading places socials = www.linktr.ee/tradingplacespod ]
[ dan gray = https://www.linkedin.com/in/dangjr/ | https://x.com/credistick ]
[ 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 ]
Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. We may hold positions in companies discussed. Do your own research.
#ShieldAI #DefenseTech #VentureCapital #Anthropic #PrivateMarkets
