*as of 10/7; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

Both leading Chinese AI startups DeepSeek and Moonshot AI are moving forward with their IPO plans following massive fundraising rounds. DeepSeek is finalizing a round of at least $16 billion at a $100 billion valuation, double its valuation from June. Meanwhile, Moonshot AI, which is the company behind the chatbot Kimi, raised a new funding round at a $50 billion valuation, up nearly 50% from its valuation in July. Both companies are aiming for early-2027 IPOs, with Moonshot AI’s on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and DeepSeek’s on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

➨ TAKEAWAY: It looks like Anthropic is going to beat both Moonshot AI and DeepSeek to the public markets, but its rumored $2 trillion valuation could make these companies look like bargains. Even though both of these massive public offerings will be on foreign exchanges, how they and the Anthropic IPO perform could influence the IPO timeline and decision making for OpenAI and others. The next six months will be massively important for the AI industry as we will finally see how major AI model startups perform in public markets.

In the newest episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin and Jan-Erik Asplund explore the rapidly growing AI infrastructure market, focusing on Fluidstack and other key companies, technological trends, and investment opportunities. They discuss the energy demands of AI, the business models of neoclouds, and the risks and rewards of investing in this dynamic space.

🚀 DayOne Data Centers IPO: The Singapore-based startup has filed for an IPO on the Nasdaq that could raise up to $5 billion at a valuation of up to $20 billion. Along with competitor Nscale’s upcoming public offering, it will be a test of the public market’s appetite for AI infrastructure companies.

🏡 Home foreclosure rates: The number of completed U.S. home foreclosures rose a staggering 42% year-over-year in August, and the number of properties in foreclosure proceedings rose 13%. Texas recorded the highest number of completed foreclosures, while South Carolina has the highest percentage of homes in foreclosure proceedings.

🪙 Leveraged crypto funds: The SEC approved a rule change that will allow Cboe to list 3x leveraged ETFs tracking Bitcoin and Ethereum futures, as well as gold, silver, crude oil, and natural gas. These products allow investors to capture triple the daily performance of the underlying assets, leading to higher potential returns and also significantly higher risk.

📉 RE fundraising drops: Closed-end real estate funds pulled in just $81.7 billion globally in the first half of 2026, down 5% year-over-year and the third-lowest total in over a decade. Only 95 funds closed, a 60% drop from last year, as capital concentrated with the largest managers.

💵 Blue Owl redemptions ease: In a promising sign for the sector, redemption requests across asset manager Blue Owl’s private credit funds have begun to slow down, possibly because investors seeking liquidity have already withdrawn.

📫 Stamp sells for half a million: One of only 11 known 1875 Continental Special Printing 5-cent stamps featuring President Zachary Taylor sold for $525,000 at a Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries sale, the first time one of these stamps has sold publicly since 1989.

Is AI conscious? (Probably not.) Are AI companies building moral and ethical models? (They’re trying to.) Does Anthropic really have an in-house philosopher? (Yes!) This longform article from the New York Times is a must-read for anyone interested in going deep into those questions and more. Over the past year, Anthropic has held secret meetings with global religious scholars from a range of religions to explore the moral formation and potential consciousness of the company's AI model, Claude. The company is apparently trying to teach its model to internalize virtue and avoid causing harm to humanity. Most religious scholars including the Pope have strongly rejected the notion of machine consciousness, and one pointed out that if the company truly believes Claude is a conscious entity then Anthropic is essentially enslaving it. These types of moral and philosophical debates will only become more relevant the more powerful the models become and the bigger role they play in society.