The Musk v. Altman trial came to a close this week, and the final arguments kept circling back to one question: can we trust the people in charge of AI? All of this is playing out as SpaceX charges toward what could be one of the largest IPOs in American history, with a whole generation of founders already spinning out of the Musk empire.

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane break down the trial's closing stretch and what the growing Elon Musk founder ecosystem actually looks like on the ground, and the other deals that caught our eye this week.

Listen to the full episode to hear about:

How Anduril landed a $5 billion Series H, more than doubling the valuation it landed just under a year ago 

Why investors just can’t say no to RJ Scaringe, who’s raked in over $1 billion for Rivian spinout Mind Robotics

How voice AI startup Vapi beat out over 40 other companies to secure a contract handling all of Ring's customer support

What an Anthropic report about an AI agent blackmailing its own developers says about where the industry actually is

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