Big Tech's big IPOs

Summary

Marketplace Morning Report – Episode Summary

Episode Title: Big Tech's big IPOs
Date: May 21, 2026
Host: Sabri Benishore
Length: ~9 minutes (excluding ads)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Marketplace Morning Report delivers a fast-paced briefing on two main topics:

1. The impending IPOs of major tech and AI firms, with new financial disclosures from SpaceX and speculation about OpenAI’s plans.
2. The hunt for rare radioactive isotopes, especially Actinium-225, as next-generation cancer treatments are developed.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Big Tech’s Big IPOs (01:01 - 03:03)

Why Go Public Now?

• Companies discussed: SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic
• These firms have raised vast capital privately and now seek IPOs to access even greater funding, especially given the extremely cash-intensive fields of AI and space exploration.
• Insight: There's significant investor demand in AI, and retail investors crave exposure to these high-profile companies.
• Henry Epp (Marketplace):

  “Right now there’s still a lot of demand from investors for pretty much any company involved in artificial intelligence. And so far, retail investors haven’t had a chance to directly get a slice of these companies, which are some of the biggest names in AI.” (01:41)

Financial Disclosures: SpaceX

• SpaceX’s IPO filing revealed:
  • Heavy Losses: Lost nearly $5 billion last year; over $4 billion just in Q1 this year.
  • Starlink: The only profitable segment of SpaceX.
  • Elon Musk’s Control: Holds 85% voting power – potentially positioning him as the world’s first trillionaire post-IPO.
• Henry Epp:

  “We learned just how much money it’s losing...But we got an exact number for SpaceX. It lost close to $5 billion last year and it lost over $4 billion just in the first quarter of this year.” (02:24)
  “He controls 85% of the voting power in SpaceX. And all the shares he owns could make him the world’s first trillionaire when SpaceX goes public.” (02:46)

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2. The Race for Exotic Cancer-Fighting Isotopes (04:44 - 08:30)

Targeted Alpha Therapy Explained

• Emerging treatment: Delivers radioactive isotopes directly to cancer cells, sparing healthy tissue—“like heat seeking missiles” (Sabri Benishore, 04:53).
• Current focus: Actinium-225, Lead-212, Astatine-211.

Isotope Rarity & Supply Challenges

• Global production: Only a tenth of a milligram of Actinium-225 made per year.
• Clinical trials delayed: Scarcity is a bottleneck for research and treatment expansion.
• Mark Peplo (Science Journalist):

  “Some clinical trials have been held up because of a short supply of Actinium 225.” (05:41)

Sourcing Isotopes

• From medical radium: International efforts underway to reclaim radium from obsolete medical sources.
• Extracting from nuclear waste:
  • Oak Ridge National Laboratory exploits stocks of Uranium-233, collecting Thorium-229 as it stays decaying, which then becomes Actinium-225.

  “They sort of skim off every week or two...isolate that and they can use that to create these actinium based drugs.” (07:03)

Scaling Up for the Future

• Industry expectation: Clinical trial results may make targeted alpha therapy widespread by 2030.
• New production facilities: TerraPower just started construction on a $450M plant to dramatically boost Actinium-225 supply.
• Mark Peplo:

  “Just a few weeks ago, TerraPower broke ground on a $450 million facility in Philadelphia that's going to massively increase their Actinium 225 production capacity.” (07:54)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On investor appetite:

  "There’s still a lot of demand from investors for pretty much any company involved in artificial intelligence."
  — Henry Epp (01:40)

• On SpaceX’s losses:

  “It lost close to $5 billion last year and it lost over $4 billion just in the first quarter of this year.”
  — Henry Epp (02:24)

• On Musk’s influence:

  “He controls 85% of the voting power in SpaceX. And all the shares he owns could make him the world’s first trillionaire when SpaceX goes public.”
  — Henry Epp (02:46)

• On isotope rarity:

  “The global production of Actinium 225 is just a tenth of a milligram per year.”
  — Sabri Benishore (05:23)

• On innovation urgency:

  "Everybody’s working towards this time where we’re expecting one or two of these new targeted alpha therapies to come through. And then all of these facilities are really going to ramp up further and further."
  — Mark Peplo (08:14)

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Important Timestamps

• 01:01: Introduction to upcoming tech IPOs; SpaceX filing & OpenAI speculation.
• 01:35: Henry Epp explains why Big Tech is seeking IPOs.
• 02:22: SpaceX financial disclosures and Musk’s projected wealth.
• 04:44: Discovery and scarcity of isotopes for cancer therapy.
• 05:23: Discussion about global Actinium-225 production.
• 06:40: How nuclear waste contributes to isotope supply.
• 07:29: Timeline for clinical trials and ramp-up of production.
• 07:54: Mention of TerraPower's new production facility.

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Overall Tone

Concise, energetic, and focused on key business and scientific developments. The style is informative but conversational, offering context, data, and insight in rapid succession.

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Summary

This episode unpacks why leading tech companies are lining up to go public now, the risks and potential upsides for investors, and how escalating demand is fueling IPO excitement—just as new disclosures paint a complex financial picture. The second half shifts to the high-stakes scramble for radioactive isotopes, where science, medicine, and industry are converging to potentially revolutionize cancer care by 2030—if supply can catch up with innovation.

Transcript

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[Sabri Benishore]

Some of the biggest names in tech are getting ready to go public. From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Benishore in New York. Elon Musk's SpaceX, which is somehow a rocket company and a social media company, but also an AI company, filed for an initial public offering yesterday. And the Wall Street Journal is reporting that OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT created, could file for an IPO as soon as tomorrow. Marketplace's Henry Epp is here with more. Hey Henry.

[Henry Epp]

Hey Sabri.

[Sabri Benishore]

So these companies have raised a lot of private capital over the years. Why are they trying to go public now?

[Henry Epp]

Well, because they need even more money. The businesses they're in, artificial intelligence and space exploration require tons of capital. And right now there's still a lot of demand from investors for pretty much any company involved in artificial intelligence. And so far, retail investors haven't had a chance to directly get a slice of these companies, which are some of the biggest names in AI. So going public allows OpenAI and SpaceX and also Anthropic, which is considering an IPO as well, to tap into that investor demand and take in billions of dollars.

[Sabri Benishore]

Part of going public means these companies will have to disclose more financial information, tell investors more about how they are doing. SpaceX is the only one that has filed this kind of information so far. What did we learn about the company yesterday?

[Henry Epp]

Well, for one, we learned just how much money it's losing. To be clear, most of these companies that are aiming for IPOs are losing money right now since they're spending so much to build out their systems. But we got an exact number for SpaceX. It lost close to $5 billion last year and it lost over $4 billion just in the first quarter of this year. The one part of the business that is profitable is Starlink, the company's satellite Internet service. We also learned just how much control Musk has over his company. He controls 85% of the voting power in SpaceX. And all of the shares he owns could make him the world's first trillionaire when SpaceX goes public.

[Sabri Benishore]

All right, Marketplace. Henry up. Thank you so much.

[Henry Epp]

Thanks, Sabri.

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[Freedom From Religion Foundation Announcer]

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[Sabri Benishore]

Actinium 225, lead 212. Astatine 211. These are exotic radioactive isotopes being explored in a still developing form of cancer treatment. It is called targeted alpha therapy. The idea is to carry these isotopes directly to cancer cells using other molecules. Kind of like heat seeking missiles. So just the cancer gets the radiation. These isotopes are exceedingly rare and pharmaceutical industry is investing billions into finding or making them. Mark Peplo wrote about this for New Scientist. Hi Mark.

[Mark Peplo]

Hi.

[Sabri Benishore]

You wrote that the global Production of Actinium 225 is just a tenth of a milligram per year. Where do you get these isotopes from?

[Mark Peplo]

Yeah, that was even less than I expected. I knew that this was an Extremely rare material. And I knew it was in very short supply. So much so, in fact, that some clinical trials have been held up because of a short supply of Actinium 225. There are probably three main ways to, to produce it. The first is from radium. It was used for many years in cancer treatment where you literally got some radium and put it on the tip of a needle, needle and inserted that into people. That treatment really been superseded by more effective methods. But it meant that all over the world there are lots of these leftover sources of medical radium brachytherapy needles. The International Atomic Energy Agency is in the process of gathering these abandoned sources together so that they can actually take that radium and then use various methods to convert it into, into isotopes such as Actinium 225.

[Sabri Benishore]

There are others. I mean, they can get it from nuclear waste too.

[Mark Peplo]

Yeah, and there's a huge amount of interest in extracting this from nuclear waste. One of the biggest efforts in the United States basically exploits a store of a couple of tons of uranium 233. All of this material is stored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. And this radioactive material is busily decaying into a variety of things, including something called thorium 229. This thorium naturally decays into actinium 225. So they sort of skim off every week or two, whatever has accumulated, isolate that and they can use that to create these actinium based drugs.

[Sabri Benishore]

Is there enough supply or will there be enough supply anytime soon for this to be a treatment that is widely available?

[Mark Peplo]

Well, really, we have two sort of timelines that are hopefully going to converge. We've got the clinical trials which should, by the year maybe 2030, start to show that these things are effective and they could get regulatory approval and therefore could start being used in tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of patients per year. And at the same time, companies are ramping up their production capacity so that they can potentially meet that. So for example, just this month, just a few weeks ago, TerraPower broke ground on a $450 million facility in Philadelphia that's going to massively increase their Actinium 225 production capacity. Everybody's working towards this time where we're expecting one or two of these new targeted alpha therapies to come through. And then all of these facilities are really going to ramp up further and further from.

[Sabri Benishore]

Mark Peplo is a science journalist and former chief news editor at Nature. Thank you, Mark, so much.

[Mark Peplo]

Thank you.

[Sabri Benishore]

You can hear a lot more about these isotopes on the podcast in New York, I'm Sabree Benishore with the Marketplace Morning Report from apm, American Public Media.

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