On today's, we dive into the dysfunction in Meta's newly formed AI unit and why it's been driving already-low employee morale even further into the ground. This week on, our hosts discuss the meltdown that has been recently unfolding at Meta and what it says about the company's relentless ambitions in the AI race. They also dive into the leaked messages and names of an invite-only group cofounded by billionaire tech founder Peter Thiel, and how Sam Bankman-Fried is now actively seeking a pardon from the Trump administration. Plus, they share their impressions on SpaceX acquiring Cursor and the latest on the negotiations between Anthropic and the government. 'Tell Him He's a Piece of Shit': Meta's New AI Unit Is a Total Mess Write to us at [email protected] . You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link . Before we start, two quick things. If you've been enjoying listening to the show, we would appreciate it if you took a second to rate it in your podcast app of choice. It really helps us reach more people. And second, if you have any questions related to tech, privacy, or politics that you would like me, Zoë, and Leah to take on, now is the time to submit them to [email protected] . It doesn't matter how big or how small, we want to hear from you and get you answers. Today on the show, we're talking about the dysfunction in Meta's newly formed AI unit and why it's been driving employee morale, which was already very, very low, even further into the ground. We'll also break down the recent online leak that shed light on Peter Thiel's invite-only group, Dialog, more than 200 names of high profile people in government, tech, academia, beyond are listed in the documents as members and guests of this secretive society, not to mention a look at what they talk about behind closed doors.

"You would not believe the texts I got from these tech guys," NYT reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan quote Donald Trump as telling associates in an upcoming book. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sought to ingratiate themselves with President Donald Trump after he won the 2024 election, and in return he mocked their efforts behind their backs, according to a new book by The New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. Zuckerberg once texted Trump a photo of a letter written by one of his grade-school-age children, who wrote that they "looked forward to the golden age of America," a slogan Trump had repeated at rallies during the presidential campaign. And over dinner at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, Bezos denigrated The Washington Post to Trump and essentially described the newspaper as one of his worst financial investments, months before he unsuccessfully sought a business favor from the president. These episodes are detailed in the book, a copy of which WIRED obtained ahead of its release on June 23.

Weekly quiz: How many SpaceX employees just became millionaires? This week, the White House hosted a UFC fight on its South Lawn, Royal Marines boarded a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker, and a schoolgirl said she would be left staring at a wall if social media was banned for under-16s. But how much attention did you pay to what else happened in the world over the past seven days? Try last week's quiz, or have a go at something from the archives . Musk's SpaceX overtakes Amazon to become world's fifth most valuable firm For the first time, individual investors can take a stake in Elon Musk's rockets-to-AI company.

Silicon Valley's Elite Financial Advisers Say This Era of Wealth Is Different The rich are getting richer. Here's what wealth advisers are telling their tech clients right now. If anyone in tech has already started their Hot IPO Summer, it's Silicon Valley's elite wealth advisers. Two private wealth managers who work with high-net-worth techies told me they've seen an uptick in activity from their client base, some of whom are expecting a big liquidity event this year. We're talking, of course, about the employees and early investors at SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic who are coming into mind-boggling riches.

SpaceX staff and guests celebrate the company's IPO in New York on Friday. SpaceX staff and guests celebrate the company's IPO in New York on Friday. SpaceX overtakes Amazon to become world's fifth most valuable company Elon Musk's firm briefly reached $2.97tn valuation days after its IPO following purchase of AI coding startup Cursor SpaceX has overtaken Amazon to become the world's fifth most valuable company days after its stock market debut . The milestone came as Elon Musk's company agreed to buy the startup behind the AI-powered coding app Cursor for $60bn (£44bn), in an attempt to capitalise on the technology's success as a coding tool. SpaceX is the parent of Musk's AI business, xAI, which will be able to boost its capabilities in an area - AI systems writing code - that has proven to be a strong commercial success for Anthropic, the rival company behind the Claude chatbot.

Musk's SpaceX buys AI coding start-up for $60bn days after IPO SpaceX has agreed to buy AI coding start-up Cursor for $60bn (£45bn) just days after its bumper initial public offering (IPO). Elon Musk's rocket company will take over Anysphere, which makes the artificial intelligence coding agent. The move comes after SpaceX joined New York's tech-focused Nasdaq stock exchange on Friday in the biggest ever listing, valuing it at more than $2tn and raising $85.7bn . A surge in SpaceX's share price on Monday and Tuesday saw the company overtake Amazon to become the world's fifth most valuable company. The companies have been partners since April, when SpaceX announced it had the right to either buy it for $60bn, or pay $10bn for the work they have done together.

IPO mints Musk as world's first trillionaire - now SpaceX is public, it will be harder than ever not to have a stake in its future I'm filling in for your usual host Blake Montgomery, who is out this week on vacation. Today, we'll be talking about the historic SpaceX IPO and the US government's surprise order to limit the use of Anthropic's most advanced AI model over cybersecurity concerns. Elon Musk's SpaceX hit the market on Friday in the biggest IPO of all time, raising $85.7bn and easily shattering the previous record of $29.4bn set by the Saudi oil giant Aramco. The rocket, AI and satellite communications company ended the day at $160.95 per share, up from its IPO price of $135 and satisfying any Wall Street skepticism over the unorthodox rollout of the stock. SpaceX's successful market debut turned Musk into the world's first trillionaire, an unprecedented accumulation of wealth that supporters touted as a testament to his financial genius and critics denounced as a symbol of a broken economic system.

His fortunes reached new heights while his online behavior reached new lows. Enter your email to receive alerts for this author. You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. You're already subscribed to the aa_Nitish_Pahwa newsletter. You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time.

SpaceX raised $10bn (£7.5bn) more than initially thought when it sold shares to the public on Friday - bringing in a total of $85.7bn. Elon Musk's rocket and Artificial Intellgience (AI) company pulled off the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in history when it joined New York's Nasdaq stock exchange last week. The listing had raised $75bn from investors, which Musk told employees will be spent funding a significant growth phase. But the banks which backed the IPO exercised a so-called greenshoe clause, which let them purchase an extra $10bn of SpaceX shares. The extra $10bn raised, revealed in a statement by SpaceX announcing the completion of the listing, would by itself rank as one of the biggest IPOs in history.

Elon Musk becomes world's first trillionaire as SpaceX soars in stock market debut Elon Musk on Friday became the world's first trillionaire after shares in his SpaceX rocket company soared during the biggest-ever stock market debut. The Tesla and SpaceX founder comfortably cemented his status as the world's richest man, with his total net worth standing at $1.11tn (£828bn) according to the Bloomberg rich list. It came as the rocket, telecommunications and artificial intelligence (AI) company listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange with a value of $2.2tn. The company said its shares would be offered at $135 each, but trading opened at $150 and briefly reached $176.50 in a show of investor enthusiasm for potential business related to space and companies associated with Musk. SpaceX shares closed on Friday at about $161.