IPOs, Iran, and iOS 27: Tuesday's Top Stories

Maya: Hey, good morning. Welcome back to the Morning Rundown. I'm Maya here with David and we have a lot to get through today. David: Yeah, like a lot, a lot. Good morning, everyone. Maya: Okay, so first up, AI is going public. OpenAI just confidentially filed for a US IPO one week after Anthropic did the same, and SpaceX targeting $75 billion in its raise. David: 75 billion. Maya: Yeah. David: We'll dig into what that actually means for regular investors and and whether the numbers hold up. Maya: Then we're getting into the Middle East. Netanyahu reportedly called off a major Iran strike when Trump warned Israel it would be on its own. Both sides are now signaling a halt. David: And there's also an Axios piece on the backchannel stuff that was happening behind the scenes, and a U.S. helicopter went down near the Strait of Hormuz, so there's that too. Maya: Right, yeah, a lot moving there. David: And then Apple had their WWDC, new Siri, iOS 27, hints about a f***ing... Not a foldable iPhone buried in the update. Maya: Apple's calling the new Siri profoundly more capable. Whether that's actually true, we'll get into it. David: Bold claim week all around. Maya: Okay, let's get into it, starting with the IPO wave. All right, let's get into it. So I'm sitting here thinking about this question that I keep seeing pop up in my feeds. Can regular people actually buy OpenAI stock? And the answer as of this week is maybe soon. David: Yeah, Reuters reported this morning that OpenAI has filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO. And here's the thing, though. They're not the first. Anthropic did the same thing just one week before. Maya: Wait, both of them? In the same week? David: One week apart. The BBC noted that OpenAI filed its plans right on Anthropic's heels. So you've got the two biggest names in AI both heading towards Wall Street at basically the same time. Maya: That's wild, right? Like, why now? These companies aren't exactly hurting for cash. David: That's exactly the question. Follow the money. OpenAI has been burning through investment rounds for years. Going public gives them a different kind of capital and a different kind of accountability. stability. You've got shareholders now, quarterly expectations. Maya: Which, I mean, for a company whose whole pitch is we're building AGI for the benefit of humanity... that's a tension, right? David: Yeah, pretty big one. And here's what I'd file away. OpenAI recently converted from a non-profit structure to more of a for-profit model. The IPO is the next logical step, but the original mission gets a little harder to protect when your investors need returns. Maya: So for someone listening who's just like, okay, I've been using ChatGPT for two years, I want a piece of this. What do they actually need to know? David: Honestly, healthy skepticism is the right posture. These companies don't have decades of earnings history. OpenAI's valuation has been floating around $100 billion in private rounds. Maya: Wow. David: The public market price could be even higher by the time it lists. Maya: Okay, okay, okay. So we might be buying in at the... At the peak of the hype cycle. David: Possibly. Valuations in these IPOs often reflect a best-case future, not the current business. That's not a reason to avoid it, but it is a reason to look carefully at actual revenue versus projected revenue. Maya: And then there's SpaceX, because apparently one Musk IPO wasn't enough. David: Right. CBS News has a piece out today noting that SpaceX is setting aside a large chunk of shares for ordinary investors. as it tries to raise record $75 billion Maya: $75 billion? David: $75 billion, record-breaking number for an IPO. And Bloomberg pointed out something worth chewing on. Investing in SpaceX means you're also betting on Musk's whole entangled empire, Starlink, AI Ventures, the overlap with xAI, Maya: So it's not just a rocket company. You're buying Elon's entire vision board? David: more or less. And the question for any investor is whether that concentration of control is a feature or a risk. Maya: Hmm. I mean, I get why people are excited. The AI boom is real. These companies are genuinely reshaping things, but there's a difference between a great product and a great stock. David: That's the line I'd keep in mind. ChatGPT is an incredible product. Whether OpenAI, the public company, generates the earnings to justify its price tag on day one, that's a different question entirely. Maya: So, the short version, OpenAI and Anthropic are both racing to public markets. It's SpaceX wants to raise a historic $75 billion, and Wall Street is very, very hungry for AI exposure right now. David: And regular investors can participate. Just read the prospectus. Don't just buy the brand. Maya: That's advice that applies to basically everything in life. David: Financial wisdom is universal. Maya: Okay, so we've been talking about enormous bets, hundreds of billions of dollars, companies reshaping the future. But speaking of big bets, what happens when the stakes stop being financial and start being something a lot more serious, like, say, military strikes and a phone call that may have stopped a war? David: Yeah, that's a very different kind of pressure, and the details coming out are genuinely striking. Maya: Shifting gears, because while we were talking money, there was a whole near war quietly getting dialed back in the Middle East. David: Yeah, and this one has some real layers to it. So the Times of Israel and Axios both had reporting on this. Netanyahu apparently had a major strike on Iran ready to go. And then Trump told Israel it would be on its own if they went through with it. Maya: Wait, really? Like, full stop? David: Full stop. And according to Axios, the framing behind the scenes was pretty blunt. want. The quote that stood out to me: "Bibi needs the war to continue to stay politically alive in Israel, and Trump needs the war to end to stay politically alive in the U.S." Maya: Oh, that is a cold read on both of them. David: Right? But here's the thing, though—if that framing is accurate, then Trump drawing that line actually worked—the strike got called off. Maya: So, credit where it's due, the pressure held. David: It did, and The Washington Post is reporting that Iran has now said it Speaker 3: plans to immediately retaliate. David: Said "It will halt its own strikes." So both sides are signaling, for now at least, that this is done. Maya: For now. David: For now, nobody's calling it a peace deal. It's more like an exhausted pause. Maya: Which, honestly, given where this was heading, I'll take an exhausted pause. David: Fair. Maya: And then there's the helicopter story, which kind of puts a fine point on all of this. A U.S. military helicopter went down near the Strait of Hormuz. The Times reported the crew was rescued, which is good, but it's a reminder that American forces are very much in... Much in that neighbourhood. David: Hmm. Maya: And the Strait of Hormuz is not a casual location. That's one of the most important shipping lanes on the planet. A significant chunk of global oil passes through there. David: So when people say the region is tense, that's what they mean in practice. It's not abstract. Maya: Exactly. There are real people, real assets in a real place that matters a lot economically. David: You know what I keep coming back to, though? The gap between what's happening... opening publicly and what's happening in those back channels. Like publicly, there were strikes, escalating rhetoric. Privately, apparently, somebody was on the phone to somebody else saying, don't do this. Maya: And that's the part you don't see until the reporting catches up. Axios had that story on how the back-channel diplomacy unfolded. It sounds messy, multiple conversations, some of it contradictory. David: Which is just geopolitics, right? It's never as clean as the headlines make it look. Yet look. Maya: Never. The question now is whether this holds. Iran signaling a halt and Israel standing down is not the same as a framework; there's no structure here. David: So we're watching and waiting. Maya: We're watching and waiting file that away. David: And speaking of things that almost blew up and somehow didn't, while diplomats were quietly cooling this off, Apple was over at WWDC doing its own kind of rebuild. build. They basically took Siri apart and put it back together. Maya: Yeah, and given where Siri's been the last few years compared to everything we were just talking about in the AI space, I want to hear where they actually changed. David: Oh, it's a lot. iOS 18 dropped, Siri has a whole new app, and Apple is calling it, quote, profoundly more capable. We'll get into what that actually means. Okay, shifting gears entirely, Apple had its WWDC keynote, and the Siri news is honestly kind of a big deal. Maya: I mean, it had to be. The bar got raised pretty significantly this week by certain companies that just filed for IPOs. David: Right, right. No pressure, Apple. So here's what they're saying. According to Apple's own announcement, the new Siri is a quote, profoundly more capable and personal assistant. Those are their words. Maya: Profoundly. That's a big word. David: It is, but there's some substance behind it. It's got personal context now—real on-screen awareness, like it can actually see what you're looking at and act on it. Maya: That's actually the piece I find interesting. Not just answering questions, but understanding what you're doing in the moment. David: Exactly. And they built a dedicated Siri app for this. MacRumors noted it as part of the iOS 18. rollout, along with a bunch of smaller practical stuff. Maya: Like what? David: Okay, so like you can now share a phone number across two iPhones, independent alarm volume, faster AirPlay. Maya: Wait, the alarm one is going to save so many marriages. David: Genuinely, my partner would agree. But the bigger story from Bloomberg is that iOS 18 is also dropping hints about a foldable iPhone. Features buried in the code that only make sense if the screen can fold. Maya: So they're just like... telegraphing it? David: Kind of, yeah. Not officially, but the signals are there. Maya: Here's the thing, though. I keep coming back to the OpenAI angle. You've got ChatGPT filing for an IPO, and then Apple rolls out a rebuilt Siri the same week. That's not an accident timing-wise. David: Oh, for sure. The question is whether Apple can actually close the gap. Siri has been the punchline for like three years. Maya: To be fair, Apple plays a longer game. They're not trying to win the chatbot race. They're trying to make AI feel like it belongs on your phone without you noticing it. David: That tracks. And honestly, if the new Siri can just do what I ask without misunderstanding me half the time, that's a win. Maya: The bar is underground. David: It is so underground. But look, the Verge covered iOS 18 and the vibe was genuinely optimistic. This feels like Apple actually taking AI seriously, not just checking a box. Maya: I'll believe it when my Siri stops setting the wrong timer. David: Same, same. But between the new Siri, the foldable hints and the AI push across the board today, it's a weird moment where every major tech company is swinging at the same pitch. In pitch. Maya: And we'll find out soon enough who actually connects. David: All right, that's the rundown for today. Big episode. Maya: Yeah, a lot moving. The IPO wave alone, OpenAI a week after Anthropic, that tension between mission and shareholder returns is something we're going to be watching for a while. David: And the de-escalation on the Israel-Iran front. Credit where it's due on that one. Maya: Right. Plus Siri getting a real glow up at WWDC. Whether it catches up is another question. David: And that's the question of the week, honestly. Okay, if you got something out of today's show, subscribe and leave us a review. It genuinely helps. Maya: It really does. Thanks for hanging with us. David: And that's the rundown. See you tomorrow.