Abubakar

Analyzing tech and media businesses. MBA @Cornell. Ex: Tech Journalist @TheInformation; Knight-Bagehot Fellow @Columbia; Advisory Board Member @InsideTheCabal.

[Abubakar @IAtalkspace]

Everybody interested in technology should spend some time reading @benthompson's Stratechery every now and then. Pair that with listening to Nicolai Tangen's "In Good Company", and you're probably going to start seeing the world differently.

[Martini Olakunle Akande @signor_martini]

Call of my life had great marketing but most importantly, it’s a GOOD film.

No go copy their marketing and forget to make a good film, you go learn o.

[Abubakar @IAtalkspace]

@MikeIsaac Using Google's TTM P/S ratio of ~11x as the comp, then this projection assumes SpaceX could be worth as much as $37T by 2040.

For context, 2026 US GDP is ~$32T and even with a 5% annual growth rate till 2040, it would only be $64T. SpaceX alone would be half the US economy. 🤔🫠

[The New York Times @nytimes]

Breaking News: A federal judge said the Trump administration must restart applications for asylum and other immigration processing. https://t.co/J6qdEVUSM9

[Abubakar @IAtalkspace]

I'm not so optimistic though. It would require a change in their shareholder makeup and liquidity for Google. In other words, greater retail investors ownership than today and fewer available shares to trade. Increasingly close to half of Tesla holdings is retail; for Google or Nvidia it's ~25-30%.

That's partly why SpaceX has allocated an unusually large chunk of its IPO to retail, hoping to recreate Tesla-like conditions.

[Abubakar @IAtalkspace]

@afalli A huge part of SpaceX's valuation rests on growth assumptions around xAI, which combines revenue for Twitter (ads & subscriptions) and Musk's entire AI services. xAI's revenue total revenue last year was $3.2B. For context, Twitter's 2021 revenue, pre-Musk and pre-AI, was $5.1B.

[Aswath Damodaran @AswathDamodaran]

I valued SpaceX for its IPO a few weeks ago, with minimal information and a promise to revisit the valuation, when the prospectus was made public. The prospectus is public, the offering price has been set and my update is up and running. https://t.co/zRjpD1C0wv

[Abubakar @IAtalkspace]

1. To boost ad-serving for revenue, like Meta.
2. To manage costs related to inference from greater use of AI.
Pinterest is one "social feed timeline/reels" away from being the next Instagram/TikTok. But at the moment, it needs to stay competitive in visual search and creativity/serendipity, two areas at risk of genAI commoditization.

[Columbia Journalism School @columbiajourn]

📰 A new opportunity for business journalists is coming to CJS!

This October, the Nathan S. Collier Business Reporting Program will bring its first cohort to NYC for a fully funded week of learning focused on the economic, financial and organizational forces shaping society.

[Abubakar @IAtalkspace]

@erinkwoo @theinformation Congratulations Erin! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[Central Bank of Nigeria @cenbank]

Payments System Vision 2028 - The Journey So Far…

Watch the full video on YouTube- https://t.co/rrdQNPizY5

#CBN
#PSV
#PSV2028

[Abubakar @IAtalkspace]

The Nigerian Police trains like the military (including the weapons they use too). It explains why they haven't been effective at controlling the major forms of insecurity the country faces.

It's all brute force (hence the AK47s); meaning weak investigations, uncoordinated street presence/patrol, limited information gathering, slow emergency response times, etc.

[Abubakar @IAtalkspace]

Google is raising $80B in equity to finance its AI buildout. This follows a $32B debt it raised in February.

It foreshadows how the capital structure of private frontier labs may change once they go public & are unprofitable. They can't do only massive equity rounds forever.

[Abubakar @IAtalkspace]

Maybe. But these frontier labs need to raise large equity funding rounds every few months (at this point) meanwhile they're still not profitable.

The equivalent of such frequent raises as a public company means continual share dilution with volatile stock price and a capital structure that includes lots of debt.

At the moment, the private market offers relatively stable valuation and deepening (or increasingly "not-finite") equity capital pool. That's an advantage, although overvaluation is a real problem.

[Abubakar @IAtalkspace]

Andrew Left, the prominent short seller and founder of Citron Research, has been found guilty of securities fraud. Prosecutors say he uses (and boasts of using) explosive tweets to influence stock prices while betting in a different direction from his own posts.

[Abubakar @IAtalkspace]

Citron Research will no longer publish short-seller reports. I think that's a good thing. If they believe a stock will rise or fall, they can do so privately or as commentators on TV shows, but don't put out a whole "report" designed to swing the market your way to make a profit.

[Ayomide Tayo @AOT2]

The AP has published an article on the 50th anniversary of Fela Kuti’s iconic record, Zombie. You will find my thoughts about the classic song in there.

Written by @OpeAdetayo1

https://t.co/aH7kOjCUxP

[Abubakar @IAtalkspace]

Odd to see a company tweet about confidentially filing their S-1 — usually it's reporters who break this story.

Perhaps it might have something to do with a need to lead messaging due to the messy nature of SPVs and secondaries involving Anthropic shares.

[Anthropic @AnthropicAI]

Anthropic has confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Pending completion of SEC review, this gives us the option to pursue an initial public offering.

Read more: https://t.co/onGZAhRLvD

[Abubakar @IAtalkspace]

There's no excuse for the high poverty and underdevelopment of the South South region of Nigeria. Both the politicians and traditional rulers should be ashamed of themselves.

[Abubakar @IAtalkspace]

Probably the most eloquent and lucid Sub-Saharan African leader at the moment.

[The Instigator @Am_Blujay]

President of Botswana 🇧🇼 Duma Boko stunned the audience after stopping midway through his speech to deliver a brutal but powerful lecture on relationships, loyalty, and trust.

[B/R Football @brfootball]

PSG WIN THEIR SECOND CONSECUTIVE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TITLE 🏆🏆