E157: SpaceX hits milestones with Starship, Science Corp targets brain-computer interfaces, Stripe to acquire Bridge for stablecoin growth, Databricks partners with Amazon for AI chips, Klarna integrates Apple Pay for payments, Shein adds bankers to Londo

This Week in Pre-IPO Stocks

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- Wednesday = secondary market valuations, revenue multiples, performance, index fact sheets
- Saturdays = pre-IPO news and insights, webinar replays
00:58 | SpaceX Achieves Milestones with Starship Test
- Caught Super Heavy booster mid-air; landed the rocket in the ocean
- Starship needs 10 refueling flights for moon missions; demo projected by 2025
- Aims for multiple daily Starship flights to reduce costs, boost Starlink deployment
- Payload capacity 5x that of Falcon 9; increases incremental revenue
- Secondary market valuation: $226B (+7.4% vs Jul 2024)
01:55 | Science Corp Targets Brain-Computer Interface Market
- Founded by Neuralink co-founder Max Hodak
- Affordable tech: Axon probes ($500), SciFi units ($1,000) – 10% of traditional costs
- Nexus software manages terabytes of data for brain research
- Running clinical trials for ocular implants; plans for human applications
- Raised $186M; no public valuation announced
03:09 | Stripe Eyes Acquisition of Bridge Amid Stablecoin Focus
- Acquiring fintech Bridge to enter $170B stablecoin market
- Bridge has raised $58M, including $40M Series A led by Sequoia
- Follows Stripe’s USDC crypto payments resumption after six years
- Secondary market valuation: $83B (+18% vs Jul 2024)
04:05 | Databricks Partners with Amazon for AI Chip Cost Reduction
- Five-year deal to use Amazon Trainium AI chips, reducing costs by 40%
- Expanded collaboration on AWS, generating $1B+ in revenue
- Aims to save companies up to $950,000 monthly on AI model development
- Secondary market valuation: $43.8B (+1% vs Nov 2023)
05:16 | Klarna Integrates with Apple Pay for Flexible Payments
- Integration in the US and UK; expansion to Canada planned
- Offers installment payments for $35-$2,000 purchases with 0% APR financing options
- "Apple from Klarna" storefront launched for U.S. customers
- Secondary market valuation: $10.3B (+54% vs Jul 2022)
06:17 | Shein Adds Bankers to London IPO
07:11 | Hugging Face Expands as AI Developer Platform Grows
- 5M AI developer community
- 1M public and 1M private models
- 300,000 public apps and numerous private spaces for enterprise use
- 200,000 data sets for model customization
- Decentralized team, largest office in Paris; freemium model for enterprise users
- Secondary market valuation: $4.5B (+1% vs Aug 2023)
08:20 | OpenAI Tests ChatGPT Windows App with Enhanced Features
09:15 | X Updates Privacy Policy to Monetize User Data
10:28 | Pre-IPO Stock Market Weekly Performance
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11:13 | Pre-IPO Stock Vintage Index Weekly Performance
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