Topic
Scrutiny of how AI companies' valuations compare to their current or projected revenue, often citing steep forward multiples claimed by firms like Anthropic.
KOSPI rose 2.05% to 5,668.05 on Friday, ending a seven-day losing streak. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, which fell 9.48% and 11.06% the session before, are still about 7% and 10% below their earlier closes.
Perspective Coverage
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Oura, SB Energy, EG Group and Holtec have postponed listings in the four months since SpaceX's $75bn June float. Several have no tie to AI, so founders planning an exit face a pricing problem in every sector and a pipeline drifting toward 2027.
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More than 80% of 401(k)s default into mostly cap-weighted target-date funds that buy more of the Magnificent Seven, about 30% of the S&P 500, as they grow. At Amazon, a paper gain on Anthropic supplied almost $17 billion of nearly $30 billion in first-quarter net income.
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AI infrastructure spending moved the OECD's 2026 global growth forecast from 2.8% to 2.9%, while the body says energy turmoil, bond yields, weak AI returns and extreme weather hitting together would cost 0.7 points of 2027 growth.
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Payrolls in both sectors are back at their 2019 levels. The two AI companies headquartered in San Francisco are asking markets for roughly $11 million for every job left in the sectors where their hiring lands.
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Fabio Panetta told a Kyiv conference that AI's demand effects and its productivity effects push inflation in opposite directions, and that the order they arrive in will shape ECB rates for years. He also called technology valuations overly optimistic.
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Rhodium Group's tally of Chinese AI model revenue comes to about $10.5 billion against $105 billion for OpenAI and Anthropic. Two of the Chinese startups now heading for listings carry the highest revenue multiples in the set.
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Investors approached OpenAI about a round at roughly $1.2 trillion, about 41% above the $852 billion it fetched in March. Sam Altman has ruled out a 2026 listing, so private buyers are the only ones pricing that markup.
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The Globe and Mail reports talks to raise $2 billion to $3 billion at a valuation nearly triple last September's $7 billion, with Ottawa and Berlin in the conversation and most of the money expected to come from private investors.
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Cryptobriefing.com, citing Reuters, reports Anthropic is in early talks to raise up to $100 billion at roughly $2 trillion before the November midterms, with Nvidia weighing $10 billion of that book, the same sum it committed to Anthropic's compute in 2025.
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OpenAI filed its S-1 in June and then told staff in August to expect 2027, and the delay buys the 17.4% of growth between the $852 billion private mark set in March and the $1 trillion Altman wants first.
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Reuters says Anthropic is discussing a listing that would raise up to $100 billion at about $2 trillion, roughly double May's private mark, with Nvidia weighing $10 billion of the book. The raise sells about 5 percent of the company.
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Listen Labs walked away from a signed $125m round at $1.5bn, which on the numbers leaves its existing holders about 45 per cent better off if the Salesforce talks close. Its smaller rival still carries the richer multiple.
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OpenAI says roughly 10,000 agents produced a Navier-Stokes singularity proof in about 88 hours, but the only proofs an outsider can run belong to two mathematicians who posted Lean formalisations with their preprints.
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The jump from $7bn to $20bn in a year prices a claim that CEOs will pay for control rather than capability, which is plausible after Washington restricted a US model in June and untestable until the 40% forecast turns into signed orders.
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