E240: xAI $230B valuation, Databricks $134B valuation; Revolut $75B tender; Wealthfront IPO; raises from Physical Intelligence, Black Forest Labs, Moonshot AI, others
E240: xAI $230B valuation, Databricks $134B valuation; Revolut $75B tender; Wealthfront IPO; raises from Physical Intelligence, Black Forest Labs, Moonshot AI, others
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Note: AI-generated summary based on third-party content. Not financial advice. Read more.
Quick Insights

Consider the upcoming IPO for digital wealth manager Wealthfront (WLTH), which is targeting a price of $12-$14 per share and has strong backing from cornerstone investors like BlackRock. Marvell Technology (MRVL) is strengthening its position in AI infrastructure by acquiring optical interconnect firm Celestial AI, making it a key supplier for building high-speed data centers. The explosive growth of AI is creating massive energy demand, with companies like Amazon turning to small modular reactor startups like X-Energy for reliable, carbon-free power. Keep an eye on the robotics AI space, where startups like Physical Intelligence (PI), backed by Alphabet and Jeff Bezos, are developing foundational software to power next-generation robots. Finally, add high-profile private companies like design platform Canva and AI leader Anthropic to your watchlist, as both are strong candidates for major IPOs in the coming years.

Detailed Analysis

Databricks (Private)

  • A private data infrastructure and AI platform is raising a new $5 billion round at a $134 billion valuation.
  • This valuation is approximately 32x its expected 2025 sales of $4.1 billion.
  • Growth: The company projects 55% revenue growth for the current year and has a multi-year history of over 50% annual growth, which is rare for a company of its size.
  • Profitability: Gross margin has declined slightly to 74% due to higher costs for cloud storage and GPUs for its AI products. However, the company is now roughly break-even, generating about $10 million in free cash flow in 2025, a significant improvement from burning hundreds of millions annually in 2023.
  • Business Mix: Around 25% of its revenue now comes from AI products.
  • Customers: It has over 20,000 customers, including AT&T and Shell, with its top 10 customers making up less than 15% of usage, indicating low customer concentration risk.
  • Competition: Its valuation is positioned between rivals Snowflake (SNOW) and Datadog (DDOG), placing it in the upper tier of software valuations.

Takeaways

  • Databricks is a high-growth leader in the critical data and AI infrastructure space. Its ability to maintain over 50% growth at scale is a strong bullish signal.
  • The shift to profitability (break-even) is a major milestone, suggesting financial discipline even while investing heavily in AI.
  • The decline in gross margin is a point to watch, but it's a direct result of investing in the fast-growing AI segment, which could be a long-term positive.
  • For pre-IPO investors, this is a top-tier asset, but the $134 billion valuation is steep, reflecting high market expectations.

Revolut (Private)

  • The UK-founded digital bank completed a secondary share sale valuing the company at $75 billion, a significant increase from its $48 billion valuation in August 2025.
  • Financials: The company is both fast-growing and highly profitable.
    • Generated $4 billion of revenue in 2024 (72% year-over-year growth).
    • Achieved $1 billion in net profit.
    • Its Revolut Business unit has reached $1 billion in annualized revenue.
  • User Growth: It has over 65 million customers globally and aims to reach 100 million by mid-2027.
  • Crypto Business: Its crypto exchange platform, RevolutX, saw revenue surge 298% in 2024 to $647 million.
  • Valuation: The $75 billion valuation implies a revenue multiple of 18.8x on 2024 revenue. The secondary market is valuing it even higher at $81 billion.

Takeaways

  • Revolut stands out as a rare "neobank" that has successfully combined rapid global growth with strong profitability, making it a premium asset in the fintech space.
  • The explosive growth of its crypto business is a significant value driver and shows its ability to capitalize on new financial trends.
  • Its aggressive expansion plans into new markets could fuel future growth.
  • Given its scale, profitability, and brand recognition, Revolut is a prime candidate for a major IPO in the future.

Wealthfront (WLTH)

  • The digital wealth management platform has filed for an IPO on NASDAQ under the ticker WLTH.
  • Offering Details:
    • Targeting a valuation of up to $2.05 billion.
    • Plans to raise up to $485 million by selling 34 million shares at a price range of $12-$14 per share.
  • Cornerstone Investors: Funds managed by BlackRock and Wellington have indicated interest in purchasing up to $150 million of the IPO shares, providing a strong vote of confidence.
  • Strategy: The company markets itself as an "AI-enabled fintech" that automates investing and financial planning for Millennial and Gen Z clients.

Takeaways

  • This is an upcoming, actionable investment opportunity for public market investors.
  • The presence of major institutional investors like BlackRock and Wellington as cornerstones can help de-risk the IPO and attract other buyers.
  • The company is tapping into the strong investor appetite for both fintech and AI-themed stocks.
  • The target valuation of $2.05 billion is significantly higher than the $1.4 billion price from a terminated acquisition by UBS in 2022, suggesting management believes the company's value has grown substantially.

xAI (Private)

  • Elon Musk's AI company is reportedly in talks to raise $15 billion in new equity at a target valuation of $230 billion.
  • Valuation Growth: The company's valuation has grown astronomically, from $24 billion in May 2024 to $50 billion in December 2024, and now targeting $230 billion.
  • Cash Burn: The company is burning an estimated $1.5 to $2 billion per month to fund a massive build-out of GPU-powered data centers.
  • Strategy: The core strategy appears to be integrating its AI model, Grok, with the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to leverage its massive user base.

Takeaways

  • xAI represents a very high-risk, potentially high-reward bet on Elon Musk's ability to compete in the frontier AI space.
  • The valuation is increasing at an explosive rate, driven by investor hype and the perceived potential of its integration with X.
  • The enormous cash burn highlights the extremely capital-intensive nature of building leading AI models and the need for continuous, large-scale funding.
  • This is an investment for those with a very high tolerance for risk and a strong belief in Musk's vision.

Anthropic (Private)

  • A leading AI lab recently valued around $350 billion after investments from Microsoft and NVIDIA.
  • Product: Launched Claude Opus 4.5, its most capable model, positioned to compete directly with OpenAI's GPT-5.1 and Google's Gemini 3 Pro, particularly for enterprise coding and complex tasks.
  • Business Model: Generates about 80% of its revenue from selling API access to developers, a different strategy from OpenAI's subscription-focused model. Its coding-related products represent the majority of its revenue.
  • Acquisition: In talks to acquire Bun, a developer tool startup, to integrate its technology and improve its coding agent, Claude Code.
  • IPO Potential: The company is in early, informal talks for a potential IPO as soon as 2026. It has hired experienced executives and legal counsel to prepare for a public listing.

Takeaways

  • Anthropic is a key competitor to OpenAI, focusing on enterprise reliability and developer tools. Its API-first business model is a key differentiator.
  • The potential acquisition of Bun shows a strategic focus on strengthening its position in the lucrative AI-assisted coding market.
  • An Anthropic IPO would be a landmark event for the AI industry, offering public investors a way to invest directly in a frontier AI model developer.
  • The company's massive capital needs for its $50 billion infrastructure build-out could accelerate its path to the public markets.

OpenAI (Private)

  • The developer of ChatGPT is a dominant force in the AI space.
  • Valuation: A recent secondary sale valued the company at $500 billion. However, investor SoftBank's public disclosures imply a valuation closer to $750 billion.
  • User Base: Has over 800 million weekly active users for ChatGPT, with about 35 million paying subscribers.
  • Financials:
    • Forecasts nearly $200 billion in total annual revenue by 2030.
    • Faces a massive cumulative cash burn of $115 billion between 2025-2029 due to immense compute costs.
  • Strategy:
    • Launched a free AI-powered shopping research tool, signaling a move into e-commerce and advertising.
    • Aggressive M&A strategy, spending over $6.4 billion on acquisitions like Statsig and Neptune to bolster its infrastructure and tooling.
    • Partnering with Thrive Holdings to embed its AI into real-economy businesses, taking equity in exchange for its services.

Takeaways

  • OpenAI's valuation and user metrics are staggering, cementing its position as the current market leader.
  • The company's strategy is expanding beyond chatbot subscriptions into potentially massive new revenue streams like shopping and advertising.
  • The immense cash burn and capital requirements ($50-$80 billion in new capital needed) suggest that an IPO is a strong possibility in the medium term, despite recent statements to the contrary.
  • The partnership with Thrive Holdings is an innovative model to capture value by transforming traditional industries with AI, moving beyond simple software fees.

Other Investment Opportunities & Themes

AI & Robotics

  • Physical Intelligence (PI): A robotics AI startup that raised $600 million at a $5 billion valuation. It is developing a general-purpose AI software to control many different types of robots, aiming to be the "horizontal software layer for robotics." Backed by Alphabet's Capital G and Jeff Bezos.
  • Sierra: An enterprise AI startup building custom service agents, valued at $10 billion on a $100 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) run rate. This 100x ARR multiple reflects extreme investor optimism about its hypergrowth potential in automating customer service for major brands like Rivian, SoFi, and Cigna.
  • Black Forest Labs: A German AI startup focused on image generation, valued at $3.25 billion. Its models are already used by Adobe, Pixar, and Elon Musk's Grok, giving it broad distribution.
  • Runway: An AI video generation startup valued at $3.55 billion. Its new Gen 4.5 model is ranked #1 on a key industry leaderboard, positioning it as a strong independent competitor to giants like Google and OpenAI in the emerging AI video space.

Space Technology

  • K2: A satellite manufacturing startup founded by ex-SpaceX engineers, raising a new round that would quadruple its valuation to $3 billion. It is developing high-powered satellites for orbits beyond low-Earth orbit, a different approach from Starlink.
  • FleetSpace: An Australian startup using satellites and AI to make mineral exploration (specifically for lithium) faster and more efficient. Its technology could be a game-changer for the mining industry as demand for critical minerals soars.

Pre-IPO & M&A

  • Canva: The Australian design platform is described as preparing for an "imminent" IPO in the next couple of years. It recently hired a former Zoom CFO, a classic pre-IPO move. Its secondary market valuation is $47.1 billion.
  • Celestial AI: An optical interconnect startup being acquired by Marvell Technology (MRVL) for at least $3.25 billion. This highlights the critical importance of high-speed networking technology for building large-scale AI data centers.
  • Moonshot AI: A leading Chinese AI startup nearing a new funding round that could value it at over $4 billion. It is among a group of top Chinese AI firms preparing for IPOs in Hong Kong or mainland China.

Domestic Supply Chain & Energy

  • Redwood Materials: Founded by former Tesla CTO J.B. Straubel, this battery recycling company is valued at around $6 billion. It is vertically integrating to produce key battery components in the US.
  • X-Energy: A nuclear startup focused on small modular reactors (SMRs) that has raised $1.4 billion in the last year. It has orders from Amazon and Dow, reflecting growing demand from data centers and industry for reliable, carbon-free power.
  • Vulcan Elements: A US rare earth magnet producer that secured a $620 million contract from the Department of Defense. This shows strong government backing for building a domestic supply chain for materials critical to defense, EVs, and wind turbines, reducing reliance on China.
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Episode Description
Send us a text Invest in pre-IPO stocks with AG Dillon & Co. Contact aaron.dillon@agdillon.com to learn more. Financial advisors only. www.agdillon.com 00:06 - Databricks $134B Primary at 32x 2025E Sales 02:20 - Revolut $75B Tender (+56% vs Aug 2025) 04:30 - Physical Intelligence (Pi) $5B Primary (+>2.5x in <1 Year) 06:32 - Black Forest Labs $3.25B Series B (<2 Years Post-Launch) 07:47 - Wealthfront IPO Targeting $2.05B 09:15 - Moonshot AI Nearing $4B Round 10:58 - X-energy $700M Series D; $1.4B in <1 Year 12:44 - Celestial AI Acquired by Marvell for $5.5B 14:31 - Canva Positioning for IPO In Few Years 15:23 - Sierra $10B Valuation at 100x ARR 17:11 - K2 Space Targeting $3B (+~4x YoY) 18:39 - Anthropic Claude Opus 4.5 Launch 21:00 - Anthropic Bun Acquisition For Claude Code 22:58 - Anthropic IPO Preparation for 2026 24:43 - OpenAI Shopping Research Tool 26:24 - OpenAI Investor SoftBank Implies $756B Valuation 26:59 - OpenAI Forecasts 2030 User & Revenue 29:26 - OpenAI + Thrive Holdings Partnership 30:38 - OpenAI Neptune Acquisition 32:14 - Redwood Materials $6B Valuation; 5% Layoffs 33:19 - xAI Targeting $230B Valuation 34:36 - Fleet Space Lithium “District-Scale” Discovery 36:07 - Runway Gen 4.5 Tops Video Arena 37:35 - Vulcan Elements $620M DoD Contract
About This Week in Pre-IPO Stocks
This Week in Pre-IPO Stocks

This Week in Pre-IPO Stocks

By AG Dillon & Co

This Week in Pre-IPO Stocks reports on pre-IPO stock research, trends, trading, and venture capital funds. Visit www.agdillon.com for more.