SpaceX Seeks $1.8 Trillion Valuation as Anthropic Dethrones OpenAI

When SpaceX officially filed for its initial public offering on the Nasdaq last week, it set the stage for what could be the largest listing in financial history. The aerospace and artificial intelligence company, controlled by Elon Musk, is targeting a valuation of at least $1.8 trillion, a figure scaled back from earlier ambitions of $2 trillion after consultations with advisers, yet still massive enough to raise up to $75 billion and eclipse Saudi Aramco's 2019 record. Viewed from the Gulf, where sovereign investors have long cultivated ties with Musk, the moment carries particular resonance: Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding and the private office of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal jointly hold a 0.63% stake in SpaceX, a position that could be worth an estimated $8.3 billion even at the lower valuation band. The company's prospectus reveals a strategic pivot beyond rockets and Starlink satellites, positioning itself as a builder of "orbital data centres" for the AI economy—a 28.5-trillion-dollar market, as described in Asian media coverage—while absorbing heavy losses from its acquisition of Musk's xAI earlier this year.

Across the Atlantic, the AI start-up Anthropic has seized the valuation crown from OpenAI, completing a $65 billion funding round that lifted its worth to $965 billion. The fundraising, led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks and Sequoia with multibillion-dollar cheques, drew additional billions from Alphabet and Amazon under prior commitments, while chipmakers Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix also joined. Analysts in Frankfurt note that Anthropic's rise underscores a truth often forgotten in tech: first-mover advantage is no guarantee of dominance. Its Claude chatbot, boosted by powerful coding assistants released late last year, has won over enterprise clients at a pace that forced the market to reassess OpenAI's lead. Russian business dailies highlight that just three months ago Anthropic was valued at $380 billion; its near-trillion-dollar milestone now cements a restructuring of power in the industry.

The race is not solely about start-up valuations. Musk, already the world's richest person, appears to be orchestrating a grand consolidation. Early SpaceX investor Peter Diamandis told Bloomberg that a merger of SpaceX and Tesla is not a question of if, but when, potentially creating a conglomerate worth over $3 trillion with the entrepreneur retaining absolute control. Meanwhile, some American hedge fund managers dismiss talk of a bubble: Dan Loeb of Third Point argues that Big Tech's projected $700 billion in capex this year and $1 trillion next year are not being flushed away, as sceptics suggest, but are laying indispensable infrastructure. Yet a New York Times analysis warns that sky-high IPO pricing rarely benefits ordinary investors, who tend to be left holding overvalued shares when the hype fades.

Nevertheless, the sheer scale of capital flowing into these ventures is redrawing global investment patterns. The Gulf's paper gains are mirrored by the participation of Asian semiconductor giants, who see AI-driven demand as a structural shift. Even the ethical dimensions are turning into marketing assets: a German broadsheet notes how Anthropic enlisted the Pope to promote its AI, setting a new standard for the moral packaging of technology. As SpaceX's roadshow begins on 4 June and both Anthropic and OpenAI eye their own public debuts in 2026, the next chapter of the AI frenzy will test whether these dizzying numbers can translate into durable value—or whether they mark the final, euphoric stage of a cycle that leaves latecomers nursing losses.