Alternative Investing Report - July 20, 2026

*as of 7/19, Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

The Beijing-based AI startup Moonshot made waves late last week when released its new model Kimi K3, which outperforms most major American AI models at a lower cost. Kimi is only bested by Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol, but those are double or triple the cost for consumers, and Kimi is apparently ahead of both in certain coding and agentic metrics. The news of a cheaper Chinese AI model concerned markets, which saw declines on Friday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 falling 1.5%.

➨ TAKEAWAY: Moonshot raised $2 billion at a $20 billion valuation in May, and is reportedly planning a Hong Kong IPO in the next six months, a quick rise for a company valued at around $4 billion at the end of 2025. Fellow Chinese AI disruptor DeepSeek is now valued around $52 billion, and is reportedly looking for a new raise at a valuation of more than $70 billion. Considering that both OpenAI and Anthropic are aiming for trillion-dollar valuations, those numbers seem like relative bargains, particularly if they can truly deliver the same results at cheaper prices. The competition is a worry for major U.S. AI startups and investors need to pay close attention.

In the newest episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin talks with Percent CEO Prath Reddy about the private credit market, investment strategies, and the U.S.'s economic outlook.

🚀 Disappointing IPOs: The data center operator Csquare went public, raising $1.05 billion at a $3.3 billion valuation, below the $4.2 billion valuation it had been targeting, pricing its shares around 20% lower than expected. Its shares traded flat in the first two days of trading, as the market clearly was not enthusiastic about the IPO. Meanwhile, the nuclear energy startup Standard Nuclear priced its shares at $15, below its initial range of $18-$21, and even after cutting its price saw its shares drop by 30% by week’s end.

🚀 Switch’s potential IPO: Meanwhile, another data center operator is reportedly exploring its own public offering that could raise $10 billion at a valuation that could reach $80 billion. The company has reportedly been seeking a private fundraising round at a valuation of $40 billion in advance of a possible IPO.

🤖 Databricks funding round: The AI analytics startup raised $3 billion at a $188 billion valuation, more than 40% higher than its last round from earlier this year, and a step up from the $175 billion valuation it had originally targeted in this round.

🏢 Industrial vacancy stabilizing: The overall national industrial vacancy rate declined in Q2, with 63% of all markets also seeing vacancies decline or flatten in the past year. Net absorption, which measures the amount of square footage leased versus the amount vacated, was up 17% quarterly and was more than double the net absorption from last year.

🪙 E*Trade crypto trading: The Morgan Stanley-owned trading platform is now allowing eligible retail customers to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana via a partnership with Zero Hash, a digital asset infrastructure company.

🎰 World Cup buoys prediction markets: Thanks in large part to the global interest in betting on the World Cup, prediction markets topped $50 billion in trading volume in June, a 75% monthly increase. With yesterday’s World Cup Final alone generating more than $5 billion in volume, it is likely that July will see even higher trading volumes.

This week: Alphabet, Tesla, IBM, Intel, and others will report their quarterly earnings.

Thursday: Fanatics Collect July Premier auction, featuring a potential 7-figure signed Jackie Robinson card, and one of the most desirable Pelé rookie cards in existence.

Friday: New home sales report released; the 10% global tariff on U.S. imports will expire unless extended.

Sunday: The Tour de France ends in Paris.