trading places

In this episode of Trading Places, Dave McClure and Aman Verjee unpack what the Democratic midterm sweep means for the AI build-out. Google lost $500B in market value after its first negative cash flow quarter in a while, and Meta is selling $95B in stock to fund AI infrastructure as its free cash flow turns negative. Is AI really killing search, or is Alphabet undervalued by a trillion dollars?

They also cover OpenAI versus Anthropic on tokens and spend, OpenAI's $30B raise stalling at around $11B, and the AI credit crunch that has CoreWeave and other neoclouds shut out of the debt markets. Plus: Instinct's rumored jump from $10B to $30B in a month and how continuity SPVs turn paper gains into DPI. In Valuation Corner, Aman breaks down Kalshi vs Polymarket: $4B vs $1B in revenue, $40B vs $21B in valuation, and why prediction markets are taking share from DraftKings and FanDuel.

04:45 - [ tech and vc news ]

AI hangover: Meta sells $95B in stock

14:26 - Google loses $500B: is AI killing search?

21:55 - OpenAI vs Anthropic: 52% of tokens, 34% of dollars

24:19 - OpenAI $30B raise stalls at $11B

29:31 - Credit crunch: AI debt up 6x, neoclouds shut out

42:46 - Valuation mania: Instinct $10B to $30B in a month

48:11 - Secondary corner: continuity SPVs turn paper gains into DPI

51:49 - [ valuation corner: Kalshi vs Polymarket ]

Prediction markets vs the house: 3% fees vs 6% vig

55:52 - Kalshi $4B revenue, Polymarket $1B

57:59 - Kalshi $40B, Polymarket $21B, about 10x revenue

58:30 - DraftKings and FanDuel shrinking 5–6%

59:57 - Our call: buying Kalshi secondaries

Trading Places is the world's worst podcast about VC secondaries, private markets and high-growth technology companies. Subscribe for weekly coverage of private-company valuations, tender offers, secondary transactions, IPOs and venture capital liquidity.

[ links ]

[ invest = https://practicalvc.com ]

[ trading places socials = www.linktr.ee/tradingplacespod ]

[ 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.

#Google #tradingplacespodcast #VentureCapital #Kalshi #PrivateMarkets

In this special edition of Trading Places, Aman Verjee reviews You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder's new documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Aman, who interviewed for the Theranos CFO job in 2015, lays out what the film leaves out: Holmes told investors Theranos was making $100M to $140M in revenue when it was making about $100,000, used Pfizer's logo to suggest an endorsement Pfizer never gave, and pulled millions in loans from the company while saying she doesn't care about money. So is it a documentary at all?

He also covers the "any blood test" demo in the film versus the one he saw in 2015, a claim attributed to General Mattis of a 98% survival rate for soldiers, up from 68%, why the film still works as filmmaking with a 9.3 on IMDb and likely Oscar run, the scenes where Amanda Seyfried reenacts Holmes's jail conversations from a script Fielder rewrites in real time, and Billy Evans's side deal to profit from the movie. His verdict: go see it, but if Holmes pitches you Theranos 2.0, maybe pass.

00:00 - cold open

01:25 - [ special: you can see everything review ]

Theranos: almost $1B raised, zero VC money

03:15 - What the film skips: $100M claimed, $100K real revenue

04:37 - Any blood test claim vs the demo Aman saw

06:00 - Aman interviewed for Theranos CFO in 2015

07:56 - Great film, weak documentary: 9.3 on IMDb

08:13 - Amanda Seyfried reenacts the jail talks

11:33 - Billy Evans side deal: who tells the story?

12:28 - Verdict: see it, pass on Theranos 2.0

Trading Places is the world's worst podcast about VC secondaries, private markets and high-growth technology companies. Subscribe for weekly coverage of private-company valuations, tender offers, secondary transactions, IPOs and venture capital liquidity.

[ links ]

[ invest = https://practicalvc.com ]

[ trading places socials = www.linktr.ee/tradingplacespod ]

[ 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. #Theranos #tradingplacespodcast #VentureCapital #ElizabethHolmes #youcanseeeverything

In this episode of Trading Places, Dave McClure and Aman Verjee are back from Asia to break down the week's biggest stories in tech and venture. CPI came in at 3.7% with oil over $100, and prediction markets give Democrats 90% odds of taking the House. What does that mean for the Fed and for AI data center policy? Then they get into SpaceX's blowout Q3, with AI revenue tripling to $7.6B, and Anthropic's leaked S-1, which shows $16.3B in Q3 revenue but slowing growth as OpenAI catches up. Can the IPO still price near $1.5T?

They also cover Replit moving most of its coding work from Anthropic to OpenAI, OpenAI's pre-IPO round being cut to $1.25T, CoreWeave bonds yielding 15% on $50B of debt, big private-market deals for Anduril at $90B, Ramp at $60B and DeepSeek at $75B, and Ukraine's drone strikes on Russian data centers. In Valuation Corner, Aman breaks down SpaceX's Q3: Starlink at $5.2B and 20M subscribers, a $500B revenue target pulled forward to 2027, a 12-month payback that funds $400B in CapEx, and why a Tesla merger now looks more likely than not.

00:00 - cold open + 42Geeks in China recap

04:34 - [ tech and vc news ]

Fed squeeze: 3.7% CPI, oil over $100

06:57 - Midterms: 90% odds Democrats take the House

14:22 - SpaceX Q3: AI revenue triples to $7.6B

22:44 - Anthropic S-1 leaks: $16.3B Q3 revenue, $1.5T valuation

27:19 - Replit switches to OpenAI, OpenAI round cut to $1.25T

33:47 - CoreWeave: 15% bond yields, $50B debt

37:01 - Megadeals: Anduril $90B, Ramp $60B, DeepSeek $75B

41:55 - Ukraine strikes Russian data centers

49:39 - [ valuation corner: SpaceX Q3 deep dive ]

Starlink hits $5.2B and 20M subscribers

50:52 - AI revenue up 7x to $7.6B

51:50 - $500B revenue target pulled to 2027

56:16 - 12-month payback funds $400B in CapEx

1:06:48 - Tesla merger: $300B revenue, $420 a share?

Trading Places is the world's worst podcast about VC secondaries, private markets and high-growth technology companies. Subscribe for weekly coverage of private-company valuations, tender offers, secondary transactions, IPOs and venture capital liquidity.

[ links ]

[ invest = https://practicalvc.com ]

[ trading places socials = www.linktr.ee/tradingplacespod ]

[ 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.

#SpaceX #tradingplacespodcast #VentureCapital #Anthropic #PrivateMarkets

In this emergency Valuation Corner, Aman Verjee breaks down Anthropic's S-1, the filing that makes it the fastest-growing company at scale of all time. He starts with the 94 pages of risk factors, including models that have shown blackmail-like behavior and risks so large the company says the insurance industry may not have the capacity to cover them.

Aman then walks through who made money: angels Jaan Tallinn, Dustin Moskovitz and Eric Schmidt with a 300X return, the FTX stake sold in 2024 for $1.3B that would be worth about $40B today, Spark, Menlo and Lightspeed, and Amazon and Alphabet, whose combined $31B is now worth about $430B. On the financials, he shows how to back into Q3 revenue of $16.8B from the trailing-12-month figure in the footnotes, why $72B of the $81B first-half net loss is a non-cash accounting charge, and how Anthropic reached an operating profit and about $3.9B in operating cash flow in Q2. He closes with the concerns: growth flattening as OpenAI closes the gap, 25% of revenue from five customers, and roughly $500B in compute commitments to Google, Amazon, Broadcom and the neoclouds that Anthropic has to pay even if demand falls short.

00:00 Anthropic's S-1: The Fastest-Growing Company at Scale Ever

[ risk factors ]

00:26 94 Pages of Risk Factors: Blackmail and Existential Risk

01:04 Why Anthropic Says No Insurer Can Cover It

[ who made money ]

01:37 The Angels Behind Anthropic: A 300X Return

02:00 FTX's $40 Billion Miss: One of the Worst Trades Ever?

02:58 Spark, Menlo and Lightspeed's Firm-Returning Positions

03:15 Amazon and Alphabet: The Biggest Venture Wins of All Time?

[ the financials ]

03:30 Anthropic's Revenue: $4.7B to $11.6B in One Quarter

04:14 Where to Find Anthropic's Q3 Revenue in the S-1: $16.8B

05:25 How to Forecast a 16X Growth Business

06:13 The $81B Net Loss, Explained

06:42 Operating Profit, $137B in Cash and Positive Cash Flow

[ the concerns ]

08:50 Is Anthropic's Growth Slowing as OpenAI Catches Up?

10:15 12,000 Enterprise Customers and Who the Top Five Might Be

11:45 The Biggest Risk: $500B in Compute Commitments

12:29 Why Anthropic Can't Walk Away From Its Compute Deals

14:08 Can Amazon and Google Give Anthropic a Break?

Trading Places is the world's worst podcast about VC secondaries, private markets and high-growth technology companies. Subsequently, it’s the only podcast about VC secondaries. Subscribe for weekly coverage of private-company valuations, tender offers, secondary transactions, IPOs and venture capital liquidity.

[ links ]

[ invest = https://practicalvc.com ]

[ trading places socials = www.linktr.ee/tradingplacespod ]

[ 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.

#Anthropic #AnthropicIPO #tradingplacespodcast #VentureCapital #IPO

In this emergency Valuation Corner, Aman Verjee breaks down SpaceX's Q3 earnings call. Revenue came in at $14.6B against a $12.8B estimate, SpaceX posted its first profitable quarter, and Elon Musk said annual recurring revenue could reach $500B to $1T by the end of 2027, two years ahead of the guidance he gave on the IPO roadshow.

Aman walks through all three segments: space at $1.8B, Starlink at $5.2B (up 69% year over year) and the super intelligence segment at $7.6B, driven by compute contracts with Google and Anthropic and a partial quarter of Cursor. He covers the capex payback period, which management says is under 12 months, and runs the math on 13 gigawatts of compute at $30 to $50 per watt. Then he makes the case for a SpaceX-Tesla merger: the capital needed for a $400B compute buildout, Tesla's balance sheet and engineering talent, and why the robots and flying cars a Mars mission needs point to Tesla. He also explains why Elon called the merger process "kabuki," gives his odds of a deal by mid-2027 and guesses the opening bid.

00:00 SpaceX Q3 Earnings Breakdown

[ spacex q3 earnings ]

02:03 SpaceX Beats Estimates: $14.6B Revenue

02:40 SpaceX's Three Business Segments: Space, Starlink and Super Intelligence

06:20 The Key to SpaceX's AI Spending: CapEx Payback

07:33 SpaceX's Path to $500B in Revenue

12:07 Is SpaceX Worth Its $2 Trillion Valuation?

[ spacex x tesla merger ]

13:00 Could SpaceX and Tesla Merge in 2027?

15:00 The Financial Case for Combining SpaceX and Tesla

16:56 How Tesla Could Help Elon Musk Get to Mars

20:03 Elon Musk Responds to Merger Speculation and the "Kabuki" Process

22:26 Aman's 2027 Merger Prediction: Could Tesla Get a $420 Offer?

Trading Places is the world's worst podcast about VC secondaries, private markets and high-growth technology companies. Subsequently, it’s the only podcast about VC secondaries. Subscribe for weekly coverage of private-company valuations, tender offers, secondary transactions, IPOs and venture capital liquidity.

[ links ]

[ invest = https://practicalvc.com ]

[ trading places socials = www.linktr.ee/tradingplacespod ]

[ 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, including SpaceX. Do your own research.

#SpaceX #Tesla #tradingplacespodcast #VentureCapital #spacexearnings

$518B in compute commitments and 80 pages of risk factors

These are just some of the surprising numbers from Anthropic’s leaked S1. In this episode of Trading Places, Dave McClure and Aman Verjee break it all down. Will their $2T IPO still happen before Thanksgiving? Plus, the 10-year Treasury broke 5% for the first time in nearly 20 years — what that means for the IPO market.

They also cover the debt behind the AI data center boom, the AI safety incidents raising product liability questions, and what a Senate flip could mean for AI and crypto policy. Plus: Oura pulls its IPO, AMD’s $8.2B acquisition of World Labs and ElevenLabs doubling to $22B in an employee tender. Then, Dave discusses secondary market trends with Sam Lawson, co-founder and managing partner of Flywheel Capital. In Valuation Corner, Aman breaks down the >$20B nuclear startup industry. He covers how Aalo Atomics compares to its competitors and why nuclear demand is booming.

00:46 - [ tech and vc news ]

interest rates reach 20-year high

05:24 - surprising numbers from Anthropic S1 leak

12:14 - rising costs of AI data center buildout

18:03 - soaring AI safety concerns

22:13 - how midterms will impact AI

27:53 - Oura pulls $2.2B IPO

32:29 - chipmaker AMD $8.2B World Labs acquisition

34:53 - ElevenLabs doubles valuation to $22B

40:06 - [ intvw: Sam Lawson, Managing Partner @ Flywheel ]

48:56 - reasons for starting Flywheel

1:00:37 - state of the venture secondary market

1:00:52 - secret stallions

1:05:55 - VC market trends and predictions

1:17:59 - [ valuation corner: nuclear startup Aalo @ $3B ]

nuclear startup industry valued at over $20B

1:22:04 - forces driving nuclear demand

1:24:44 - will the nuclear startup boom stick?

#VentureCapital #Anthropic #AISafety #Secondaries #NuclearEnergy

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.

Subscribe for weekly coverage of private-company valuations, tender offers, secondary transactions, IPOs and venture capital liquidity.

[ 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

Dario Amodei says the industry needs to "pace the frontier." Sam Altman and Elon agreed. Dave and Aman aren't buying the official story. They break down why slowing down might be good for business, and why they would welcome government regulation.

The macro backdrop compounds things. Oil's back over $100, the 10-year just touched 5% for the first time since 2023, and the national deficit keeps rising past $40 trillion. Dave and Aman debate whether Washington will ever get serious about the debt, or whether AI-driven growth is the only way out.

Additionally: Oura is reportedly eyeing a $16B IPO, a wave of AI mega-rounds landed: Cognition at $48B, Crusoe at $30B, Shield AI at $20B. And corporate tender offers are on pace to hit 600 deals this year as companies stay private longer and look for new ways to give employees liquidity.

Plus: a Valuation Corner deep-dive on Harvey AI, the legal-tech company that just raised at $15.5B. Aman breaks down Harvey's founding story, and discusses how they might protect themselves from ruin against the AI giants.

[ Tech & VC News ]

03:07 ⁠state of the economy: oil, interest rates, and inflation all up

06:25 importance of reducing the deficit

08:13 ⁠AI leaders hit the brakes

20:27 ⁠why AI giants want to be regulated

25:22 upcoming Oura IPO

28:34 ⁠mega-round raises for a host of AI companies

38:09⁠ ⁠tender offer boom

43:30 [ Valuation Corner: Harvey AI @ $15.5B ]

45:42 ⁠founder stories

47:43 ⁠breaking down the legal AI ecosystem

50:07 ⁠⁠Harvey vs AI giants

57:30 ⁠⁠tribute to a legend: Bill Draper

[ links ]

[ invest = https://practicalvc.com ]

[ trading places socials = www.linktr.ee/tradingplacespod ]

[ 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!

#amanverjee #VentureCapital #PrivateMarkets #davemcclure #bigbubbletrouble

Anthropic had a massive week. The company is targeting $30 trillion in potential revenue, roughly the size of US GDP. A federal judge also struck down the Trump administration's attempt to label Anthropic a "supply chain risk,” a major hurdle cleared ahead of its IPO. The company also locked in a $45B compute deal with Enscale. Its AI infrastructure spending now tops $150B.

Nvidia had a big week too. The company posted a blowout $96B Q2 and purchased Hugging Face for $13B. Dave and Aman break down why Nvidia has shifted strategy. It's now fortifying the entire open-source AI ecosystem so no single LLM provider gets too much leverage.

Additionally: New details on that recent OpenAI hack of Hugging Face. Chinese open-weight models keep gaining user share. Meta settles a landmark $17B social-media addiction lawsuit - its implication for the industry going forward. Dave and Aman also break down Elon’s latest move.

Plus: a wide-ranging interview with Hoxton Ventures' Hussein Kanji on building a European venture firm from scratch, and a Valuation Corner deep-dive on Neoclouds.

[ links ]

[ invest = https://practicalvc.com ]

[ hussein kanji =⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/hkanji⁠ |⁠ ⁠⁠https://x.com/hkanji⁠ ]

[ trading places socials = www.linktr.ee/tradingplacespod ] [ 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!

#husseinkanji #amanverjee #VentureCapital #PrivateMarkets #davemcclure

This week on Trading Places, Dave McClure and Aman Verjee break down Nvidia's expanding AI ecosystem, a billion-dollar stake plus exclusive licensing with Poolside, an investment in data supplier Mercor at $20B, and a bet on Perplexity as it raises at $30B. Plus: OpenAI's CFO signals a 2027 IPO, Chinese open-weight models overtake closed models in usage, the Cursor and OpenRouter deals officially close, investors cash out big while Sam Bankman Fried sits out his winnings in jail, fresh mega-rounds for Lovable, Higgsfield, and Lambda, PitchBook's Emily Zheng on the secondary market, and Aman's valuation corner on sports-franchise economics after the Lakers sold for a record $12.5B.

Timestamps:

00:00 - cold open

01:06 - [ tech and vc news ]

Aman plays the US Open and book launch 🎾

03:15 - Nvidia moves $19B on their open AI ecosystem 💰

09:08 - leaked timeline for OpenAI IPO ⏲️

10:45 - the Anthropic vs. OpenAI horserace 🐎

18:50 - open weight AI models usage is growing 📈

22:43 - investors cash out big on SpaceX-Cursor acquisition 🤑

25:00 - SBF sat out his big win in jail 🔐

26:45 - OpenRouter acquired by Stripe 🧾

30:11 - Lovable at $13B 💪

30:30 - Higgsfield raises at $5B 🚀

33:53 - Lebron bonds 🏀

37:01 - [ intvw: Emily Zheng, PitchBook ]

the state of the VC secondary market 🤔

39:45 - the next top-10 VC secondary startups 🏪

43:40 - the top sectors in Q2 2026 🎩

45:02 - potential trouble in the SPV market 😟

52:10 - the future of tender offers👂

57:45 - 2027 predictions 🗓

59:51 - the changing nature of the IPO 🔃

1:03:02 - [ valuation corner: Lakers sell for $12.5B ]

Lakers sale price breaks NBA record 🏅

1:04:30 - tax benefit to owning a sports franchise 📑

1:06:30 - breaking down the most valuable sports teams 🏟

1:09:11 - how different leagues manage revenue ⚾️

1:12:17 - why the Cowboys are the most valuable team in sports 🏈

[ links ]

[ invest = https://practicalvc.com ]

[ trading places socials = www.linktr.ee/tradingplacespod ]

[ emily zheng = https://www.linkedin.com/in/emzheng/ | https://x.com/EMZheng47 ]

[ 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.

#Nvidia #AI #VentureCapital #Perplexity #PrivateMarkets