The 'people’s airline,' SpaceXAI, and the Enterprise AI Race

Episode notes

Everyone wants a piece of the enterprise AI pie, and this week, we saw a string of companies making their moves. From Anthropic and OpenAI announcing new joint ventures targeting enterprise AI deployment to SAP dropping $1B on German AI startup Prior Labs, it's becoming clear that if you're a startup building enterprise tools, you're likely an acquisition target. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into the week's enterprise AI deals, the xAI-Anthropic compute arrangement , and what it all means ahead of what could be a big IPO season. Listen to the full episode to hear about: Why a TikToker is trying to crowdfund the purchase of Spirit Airlines , and whether anyone really loves Spirit enough to make it work Why Katie Haun's venture fund and Andreessen Horowitz are both raising billions to back a crypto comeback Aurora Innovation's milestone commercial trucking contract with a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, announced shortly after we caught up with Aurora’s CEO, Chris Urmson , at HumanX The Pentagon's latest AI spending spree, inking deals with Nvidia, Microsoft, and AWS

• What if the AI giants are building the roads, not the destinations? Chi-Hua Chien thinks he knows who wins81 / 100
• The US banned Anthropic's Fable 5 release, but the numbers don't seem to care56 / 100
• NEA's Tiffany Luck on AI IPOs, personal agents, and the ROI reckoning67 / 100
• The SpaceX IPO has finally arrived
• It’s hot IPO summer, and the MANGOS are ripe