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OpenAI Files Confidentially For IPO, Joining SpaceX and Anthropic In Capitalizing On AI Frenzy
The rush by AI companies to go public before the window closes (i.e., "market conditions" emerge) entered its final lap late on Monday, when OpenAI joined its two mega peers in filing for a blockbuster IPO that could value the ChatGPT creator at more than $1tn as it races rival Anthropic to list its shares publicly, following an imminent offering by SpaceX.
OpenAI said it had confidentially submitted a draft IPO prospectus to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, formally kicking off the process for one of the year’s most hotly anticipated debuts. The company is also planning to launch a tender sale of its shares to provide liquidity to employees in the coming weeks, before the company goes public, Bloomberg reported. Why employees would want to sell shares ahead of an IPO is not exactly clear, unless they fear the market reaction to the public offering would disappoint.
OpenAI’s listing announcement comes days before SpaceX is set to IPO in a deal that could raise a record $86bn and value Elon Musk’s rockets-to-AI conglomerate at $1.78tn. Anthropic, the startup behind the chatbot Claude, said last week that it had filed confidentially for an IPO of its own. The company soared to a $965 billion valuation in its latest private funding round - above OpenAI’s for the first time - as its revenue surged.
The three Wall Street listings comes at a time of unbridled euphoria among investors over AI, which has helped propel US stocks to a series of record highs but also prompted worries that markets are overheating. Last week, Goldman published a note seeking to preempt the big question: "Can Markets Absorb Massive Stock Supply From Coming Mega IPOs Without A Crash:" While Goldman did not express concerns about the coming flood of stock supply (its argument is that demand will more than offset the flood of new shares), the bank which is also a lead underwriter for both SpaceX and Anthropic calculated that recent and upcoming IPOs will result in roughly $500 billion of additional unlocked shares available to sell in 2026 and likely a larger quantity in 2027 as insiders sell and distribute their stakes to public (mostly retail) shareholders. The bank expects the majority of potential equity supply from the current pipeline of IPOs will become free float in 2027.
OpenAI’s IPO - which also comes at a time when CEO Sam Altman has floated handing out shares to US taxpayers ostensibly in hopes that such an action would lead to a government backstop and/or bailout if and when the AI cycle turns - will mark a test of investors’ appetite for a company posting booming revenue growth but also staggering losses that are forecast to continue for many years as the company spends vast sums on data centres and other infrastructure: its funding commitments to hyperscalar companies are well north of $1 trillion and unless the company manages to dramatically boost its revenue growth it will find itself woefully undercapitalized in coming years. Hence the IPO, as well as a bevy of private credit deals which mask the company's true debt exposure.
OpenAI has been investing heavily in AI research to compete with rivals including Google and Anthropic, as well as to expand the computing capacity needed to serve ChatGPT’s 900mn users. In February, the company told investors it was planning to spend about $600 billion on AI infrastructure by 2030.
It said in a statement on Monday that it had not “decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company”.
“But it’s a complicated set of trade-offs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best,” it added.
A public debut in 2026 would also pit Altman squarely against Elon Musk on a different plane than the failed lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO. SpaceX, Musk’s rocket, satellite and AI firm, is targeting an IPO at a valuation of roughly $1.8 trillion on Thursday, which would immediately make it one of the world’s most valuable public companies.
As an indication of the staggering demand for AI exposure, OpenAI has already dwarfed even SpaceX’s IPO in a single funding round. The company completed a deal to raise $122 billion from investors at an $852 billion valuation.
The ChatGPT maker also planned to launch an employee share sale ahead of going public at its current $852bn price tag, according to people familiar with the matter. One said OpenAI’s decision to announce its confidential filing was intended to give employees who were considering selling shares “transparency” about the upcoming IPO.
US tech groups often file IPO paperwork privately, keeping their financial figures out of the public eye while the SEC reviews documents. That allows start-ups to gauge investor demand, make revisions and sometimes scrap IPO plans without broader scrutiny.
The San Francisco-based company’s move to progress its listing plans received a boost after a California court last month threw out Musk’s legal case against OpenAI and its chief Sam Altman.
A public debut in 2026 would also pit Altman squarely against Elon Musk on a different plane than the failed lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO. SpaceX, Musk’s rocket, satellite and AI firm, is targeting an IPO at a valuation of roughly $1.8 trillion on Thursday, which would immediately make it one of the world’s most valuable public companies.
OpenAI had been working with bankers at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley and lawyers at Cooley for the past few months, people familiar with its preparations previously told the FT. Monday’s filing sets OpenAI on a path to start trading as early as the autumn, they said.
It is already one of the world’s most valuable private companies, after closing a record funding round of up to $122bn in March. As part of that deal it raised $3bn from retail investors, who will be given a wider opportunity to invest in the start-up when it becomes publicly traded.
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How A Tiny Insect Decimated Florida's Citrus, And What Orchardists Are Doing About It
Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times,
Lifelong citrus farmer Sidney Tillett cut a path through a grove that has endured in his family for four generations, stopping his SUV between two rows of trees. On one side was a long plot of lush green saplings, covered with protective mesh bags tied to stakes in the ground.
The Citrus Place, a fruit and produce market in Terra Ceia, Florida, on May 21, 2026. The store is popular among vacationers.Directly on the other side, a row of petite orange trees with withering leaves were all battling a bacterial infection, caused by an invasive insect that has decimated the state's orange industry in just two decades.
"It's a story of survival," Tillett told The Epoch Times, remembering his father's 25-foot-tall citrus trees that could sometimes produce 1,000 pounds of fruit in a single season.
Now, what trees survive are lucky if their canopies get half that size, or produce any fruit that can be sold at market. What was once 600 acres of citrus trees in the 1970s has now dwindled to five.
The orange - Florida's inextricable insignia that emblazons license plates, T-shirts, and bumper stickers from affluent coastal towns to rural farming communities - was once the state's largest cash crop, and positioned the Sunshine State as the country's majority citrus producer.
Florida harvested a record 244 million boxes of oranges during the 1997-1998 season. This year, the Department of Agriculture estimates Florida will only produce 12.2 million boxes, a stunning 95 percent drop in just under 30 years.
While occasional freezes, catastrophic hurricanes, and an on-and-off, decades-long battle with the citrus canker disease proved to be frustrating setbacks for many orange growers, the destruction of Florida's citrus industry kicked into high gear in 2005.
That was the year an invasive insect from China - which made its way to the United States through Mexico - introduced a disease that would ultimately decimate Florida's citrus industry.
The Asian citrus psyllid feeds on citrus tree leaves, causing the plant to contract a bacterial infection known as huanglongbing, commonly called citrus greening.
The disease causes rapid root loss, slowly draining the life from healthy trees as they struggle to absorb and retain nutrients. Oranges languish, struggling to reach full maturity and normal sugar composition - losing the sweet taste that made the fruit an in-demand crop worldwide.
There is no known cure. And the impacts extend far beyond the Sunshine State.
Citrus greening has slashed total U.S. orange production by 80 percent and grapefruit production by 88 percent since 2000, according to a report from the American Farm Bureau Federation. California has now overtaken Florida to become the United States' largest citrus producer, and nations such as Egypt and South Africa now export more oranges worldwide.
But Florida citrus farmers are not giving up.
Recent studies by the University of Florida's Citrus Research and Education Center have offered several paths for the industry to take.
Insecticides are a major component of citrus greening management, the center stated in an August 2025 production guide, but a specialized protective netting known as exclusion mesh "is currently the only tool that can fully prevent [Asian citrus psyllid] infestation in citrus."
Farmers have covered young saplings with translucent mesh bags that tent the tree's canopy to keep the Asian citrus psyllid out long enough for the tree to take hold and mature.
Meanwhile, light and moisture can pass through the cover's fine mesh.
While effective at stopping immediate tree death - as many saplings are infected within the first six months - the bags have some limitations.
They allow citrus trees to produce quality fruit for at least 30 months after they're planted, but the trees eventually begin to falter after the bags are removed two to three years later.
That's why citrus farmers such as Katie and Shane Bevilacqua are trailblazing a different, even more radical approach to fighting citrus greening.
They have built massive permanent mesh tents over their nearly 750 acres of grapefruit trees at Golden Ridge Groves in Bartow, Florida, where customers can self-pick or buy bushels of fruit in the couple's market. The tents are known as "citrus under protective screen" structures.
"It's early, but it's proving to keep the psyllid out, allow the tree to remain healthy, and put on the healthy crop and beautiful fruit that Florida has been known for for decades," Shane Bevilacqua told The Epoch Times.
"Even if this could be our small contribution to keeping it going, we're excited about that."
Road to RuinThe near-total decimation of Florida's citrus industry did not happen overnight.
When officials first found citrus greening in the state in 2005, farmers had already battled irregular cold seasons with freezing temperatures that damaged their crops.
Citrus canker - a different, but still harmful bacterial infection - arrived in Florida more than 100 years ago, and was believed to be eradicated until subsequent outbreaks in the 1980s and '90s.
Despite strong efforts to eradicate citrus canker, the historic 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons spread the disease far and wide across the state. It was later found in Louisiana, Texas, and Alabama, but is currently considered endemic in Florida.
Those years would not see the end of hurricanes' impact on Florida's once famous orange market either, as the catastrophic Category 5 Hurricane Ian would buzz-saw through the center of the state in 2022, slicing through thousands of trees in its path.
Then just two years later, two back-to-back major hurricanes - Helene first, then Milton - would slam into Florida in the course of less than two weeks, further devastating the state's citrus crops.
Tillett lost a fifth of his grove during those storms, as the hammering winds blew over many of his younger trees.
But citrus greening, Tillett said, has been the biggest factor in so many multigenerational growers choosing to leave the state's cherished orange industry.
"The groves fell into nonproduction. Everybody lost," he said. "I mean, it's hard to justify a citrus grove when you're not making money."
The Asian citrus psyllid, spreader of a bacterial infection known as citrus greening, can be seen on an orange tree at Sidney Tillett's farm in Terra Ceia, Fla., on May 21, 2026. The invasive insect has decimated the state’s orange industry in just two decades. Tyler Durden Mon, 06/08/2026 - 20:55Spike Lee wears autographed Pope Leo XIV Knicks jersey at NBA Finals Game 3
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Interim Air Force One Jet Gets Patriotic Paint Scheme Ahead Of America's 250th Party
One month after the U.S. Air Force confirmed that the Boeing 747 donated by Qatar, designated as the VC-25B Bridge and widely described as President Trump's interim Air Force One aircraft, had entered flight testing in Texas and was being prepared for a new red, white, and blue color scheme, an OSINT account on X claims the aircraft has now been painted.
"Ladies and gentlemen… your United States Air Force's new VC-25B," X user TGhormley Photography wrote Sunday morning.
TGhormley Photography said the image was taken Saturday evening, though they did not disclose the location.
— TGhormley Photography (@SkunkChaser25) June 7, 2026The VC-25B Bridge is a former Qatari head-of-state Boeing 747-8i that will serve as an interim presidential aircraft until Boeing's delayed VC-25B replacements are ready, now expected in 2028.
Last month, the USAF said the VC-25B Bridge underwent flight testing in Texas and was being prepared for a red, white, and blue paint scheme.
The military blog TWZ recently noted that there are still many "questions swirling about the legality and ethics of receiving the gifted plane." Last May, the Pentagon took delivery of the aircraft and said it would rapidly undertake the required modifications.
The VC-25B Bridge appears to be ready ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations on July 4, less than one month away
Tyler Durden Mon, 06/08/2026 - 20:30