Alphabet’s record-breaking $85B raise for Google’s AI business is a helluva good signal

The upcoming SpaceX IPO is expected to smash records for cash raised and valuation, and Anthropic’s deal is expected to do the same, possibly surpassing SpaceX. OpenAI is also waiting in the wings.

But all of this rests on public investors’ appetite — not just private VCs — remaining strong, and then staying that way. An unprecedented nearly $8 trillion in AI spending has been committed over the next five years. That money has to come from somewhere — and that somewhere includes individual company revenues, loans, and capital raised through stock sales. Whether public markets have the stomach to absorb that much, for that long, is the question that every AI company eyeing an IPO should be thinking about right now.