AI Markets: Anthropic’s fund, SpaceX earnings, neocloud debt

Anthropic is setting aside 5% of its stock for a public benefit fund ahead of its IPO. SpaceX reports earnings Tuesday, while debt has neoclouds on edge.

Anthropic puts 5% of its stock into a public benefit fund ahead of its IPO

On October 18, Anthropic announced that it is earmarking 5% of its stock for a new public benefit fund. The news lands just weeks before a highly anticipated IPO.

The key points:

Anthropic is committing “5% of its stock” to the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, pending shareholder approval.
The board can add another 2% for every 50% increase in the company’s value above a baseline threshold, which the company hasn’t disclosed.
Combined with the cofounders’ pledges (80% of their shares) and the employee giving program, roughly 20% of the company’s equity would go to the public benefit.
The fund is a limited liability company wholly owned by Anthropic, and it is barred from lobbying and political donations.

What the fund changes (and what it doesn’t)

The fund will be able to back traditional nonprofits or provide direct aid to certain populations. Anthropic points to AI’s impact on jobs, a topic for which it has already pledged $200 million in research. Detailed governance and the value thresholds will be published “in the coming months.” A progress report has been announced, with no date.

Running the numbers: at May’s valuation ($965 billion), 5% comes to about $48 billion, according to an estimate by BigGo Finance. That’s a press estimate, not an Anthropic figure. The transfer hasn’t happened yet: it’s a proposal put to shareholders.

The link to the market

For a future shareholder, the issue is simple: a slice of the equity will go to a fund instead of staying available for sale. According to a Stocktwits headline, former White House adviser David Sacks voiced doubts, while Elon Musk says he wants shares distributed directly to the public. These are opinions, not verified facts.

The timeline remains uncertain: the company has filed confidentially, and no public prospectus is known so far. For a European investor, nothing is available yet: the stock isn’t listed, and whether it will be PEA-eligible is unknown.

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SpaceX reports Q3 results Tuesday: its second test in front of the market

SpaceX releases its third-quarter numbers on Tuesday, October 20, after the Wall Street close. It’s only its second report since its June 12 IPO.

The key points:

Results come out October 20 after the close, with an audio webcast at 4:30 p.m. New York time (10:30 p.m. Paris time), streamed on X.
In Q2, SpaceX posted $7.8 billion in revenue (up 92% year over year) and a net loss of $541 million.
The stock traded around $162 on October 9, for a market cap of ~$2.2 trillion, versus $135 at the IPO.
Tesla reports the next day, October 21.

What investors will be watching

Q2 showed a contrast: Starlink was making money, while AI and capital spending weighed on the results. Analysts will track the same trio: Starlink’s profitability, the cost of AI data centers and Starship’s progress. The $60 billion all-stock acquisition of Cursor, expected to close this quarter according to a press preview, will also be under the microscope. We couldn’t find a reliable analyst consensus: best to wait for the numbers.

The report lands in a busy week. According to Investor’s Business Daily, U.S. futures are rebounding Monday after a sell-off in AI stocks, with Meta, Tesla and SpaceX in the spotlight. On that page, SPCX is listed at $146.03, down 1.74%.

The Tesla rumor, separate from the facts

On Monday, a Stocktwits headline attributed to analyst Gary Black a prediction that SpaceX will buy Tesla “in the next few weeks,” with a figure of $420. We weren’t able to read the full article. Back this summer, Black was already writing that he expected an all-stock offer, at a premium of about 20%, before year-end. Neither Tesla nor SpaceX has confirmed any talks: this is an analyst’s opinion, not an announcement.

For European investors, SPCX trades directly through a regular securities account only, not in a PEA.

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Microsoft pulls out of a Nscale data center in the UK: the power grid is the bottleneck

Microsoft is reportedly leaving an AI data center project in Loughton, Essex, that British company Nscale was building for it. The stated reason isn’t demand, it’s electricity.

The key points:

On October 18, Reuters reported, citing the Telegraph, that Microsoft is pulling out of the project. Microsoft declined to comment.
According to the Telegraph, grid operators told Nscale they couldn’t supply power before the 2030s.
The site was slated to host about 23,000 Nvidia chips for Azure, starting at 50 MW.
Nscale says it remains committed to Loughton and is looking at other energy sources.

A plug problem, not a wallet problem

Some context helps make sense of the news. In late September, Euronews had already reported that UK Power Networks couldn’t connect the site before the early-to-mid 2030s. Loughton represented about 11.5% of the October 2025 deal under which Nscale was to supply nearly 200,000 Nvidia chips to Microsoft (a calculation by analyst TIKR, not an official figure).

That hasn’t slowed Microsoft’s spending. It invested $35.8 billion in cash in the June quarter, versus $17.1 billion a year earlier, and its CFO said demand still outstripped supply. Results for the following quarter are expected October 28.

The link to the market

Nscale is preparing its own U.S. IPO. Its filing mentions deals with Microsoft worth up to $43.8 billion, and the press cites a target valuation of up to $35 billion (Financial Times, via Traders Union). Bloomberg ran a headline Sunday saying the company is facing investor pushback on that price; we weren’t able to read the article. A customer walking away from a flagship site is a red flag to watch for this deal.

For a European saver, the takeaway is broad: AI’s bottleneck is shifting from chips to energy and grid connections. Nscale isn’t listed yet, so there’s no access via a PEA or an ETF.

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Neoclouds: CoreWeave’s debt has the whole sector on edge

“Neoclouds,” the companies that rent out AI computing power, just had a brutal week. They’re bouncing back Monday, but their debt remains front and center.

The key points:

On October 16, Nebius closed down 12.18% at $165.47, and CoreWeave fell nearly 12%.
CoreWeave owed $35.6 billion against $5.5 billion in cash as of June 30; Reuters cites a figure close to $50 billion.
The yield on its 2030 bonds neared 16% during the drop, according to TIKR.
On Monday, the stocks rebounded after chip stocks’ worst week since March, according to Stocktwits.

Why the debt is worrying

A 16% yield means lenders are demanding a lot to lend. For a company borrowing to buy chips, that makes every new project more expensive. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield, meanwhile, was around 5.10%, according to the Investor’s Business Daily page.

Not all balance sheets look alike. Nebius raised $5.75 billion in convertible bonds on August 24, with coupons of 0.50% and 4.50%. Its trailing twelve-month net debt ($2.15 billion) is far lower than CoreWeave’s, according to TIKR. According to Benzinga, IREN had $5.9 billion in cash against $7.59 billion in debt.

What observers are saying

Stocktwits reports that industry executives see only “a few survivors” among neoclouds: that’s a reported, unverified opinion. A Gartner study cited by the financial press also predicts that most AI cloud providers will lose their independence before the end of the decade.

The link for European investors: these stocks serve as a barometer of AI financing. If credit tightens, data center projects get more expensive, which also hits their suppliers (chips, energy, equipment). These are risky U.S. stocks; PEA eligibility needs to be checked stock by stock.

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Edition prepared by our monitoring agent (data and sources as of Monday, October 19, 2026), reviewed in line with our editorial policy. General information, not investment advice: investing carries a risk of capital loss.