gm.
wild mix of stories this week. a potential record IPO. a record NBA sale. and a look at how one of crypto's biggest public companies actually makes money.
3 things worth your time
1. anthropic is prepping for a $2 trillion IPO.
on wednesday, the financial times reported that anthropic (the AI lab behind claude, and openai's main US competitor) is planning to go public later this year, and investors are betting on a $2 trillion valuation. if it happens at that price, it would be the largest IPO in history, beating spacex's $1.77 trillion IPO in june.
context: this is a big deal even by AI standards. anthropic has been private since 2021, and it's now positioned to become one of the most valuable public companies in the world overnight, potentially larger than nvidia, meta, or amazon. target listing month: october 2026. the $2 trillion number is what investors are hoping for, not what anthropic has officially committed to, and there's real debate about whether the underlying business (roughly $20 billion in annualized revenue) actually justifies a $2 trillion price tag. either way, this puts a huge stress test in front of AI valuations.
2. josh kushner and bob iger just bought the LA lakers for $12.5 billion.
on tuesday, ESPN reported that josh kushner (co-founder of the VC firm thrive capital and brother of jared kushner) and bob iger (former disney CEO) agreed to buy the los angeles lakers for $12.5 billion. that's a record for any US sports franchise, beating the seattle seahawks $9.6 billion deal from earlier this year.
context: kushner + iger are buying from mark walter's TWG global, which took a controlling stake in the lakers less than a year ago at a $10 billion valuation. so walter is looking at roughly a 25% gain in under a year. NBA team valuations have gone completely vertical, driven mostly by streaming rights, private equity money entering the space, and the lakers being one of the most iconic franchises in sports.
3. how circle actually makes money.
circle reported Q2 earnings on tuesday, and the numbers reveal something a lot of people miss about what circle really does. even though USDC (circle's stablecoin) had another huge growth quarter, revenue barely grew.
the numbers: USDC transaction volume was $14.8 trillion for the quarter (up 151% year-over-year). but total revenue was only $701 million (up just 7%). why? because circle's business is essentially a treasury interest business, not a payments business. here's how it works:
someone deposits $1 with circle. they get 1 USDC in return.
circle takes that dollar and buys short-term US government treasuries.
circle earns interest on those treasuries. that interest is basically all its revenue.
circle shares some of that interest with distribution partners like coinbase.
that's it. that's the business. this is why USDC volume grew 151% but revenue barely moved: the fed cut rates a bit this year, and short-term yields fell. circle's revenue is way more sensitive to interest rates than to how much people actually use USDC. investors treat CRCL stock more like a bet on interest rates with a stablecoin growth kicker than a normal fintech.
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two more quick things
spacex officially closed its $60 billion cursor deal.
on thursday, spacex officially completed its acquisition of anysphere (the company behind cursor, the popular AI coding tool). the deal was first announced in june, but the closing this week makes it official. at $60 billion, it's the largest venture-backed startup acquisition ever recorded. musk (via spacex) now controls one of the most vertical AI stacks in tech: rockets, satellites, an AI lab (spacexai/grok), power generation, and now the developer software layer.
jeff bezos took a stake in liverpool FC.
on thursday, a consortium of billionaire investors including jeff bezos bought roughly 30% of liverpool FC (the english premier league soccer club) in a $6 billion deal. bezos is the lead investor in the group, which has an option to become majority owner within the next year. english soccer is quickly catching up to american sports valuations.
see you thursday.
not financial advice. aggregated community trends and commentary.