The Ben Shapiro Show - June 10, 2026


SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic Are Going Public—Here’s What It Means


Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

194.68

Word count

2,268

Sentence count

171

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

SpaceX is about to go public, and it s about to make a bunch of people an absolute fortune. Plus, we ll get to the miracle of self-driving cars, and a major Democratic policy failure in Seattle.

Transcript

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Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
00:00:00.000 The biggest democratic lie when it comes to economics is that wealth is basically a fixed pie and that the best way to run the world is to take that pie and spread it more equitably, which just means a softer form of communism, basically.
00:00:12.000 But as AI companies head toward IPOs in the coming months, the magic of American innovation has generated immeasurable wealth for Americans who worked on each startup from its earliest days.
00:00:21.000 We're talking like engineers to baristas.
00:00:24.000 Plus, we'll get to the miracle of self-driving cars and a major Democrat policy fail in Seattle.
00:00:29.000 So let's start with a Bonafide expert on economics, the church storming Democrat darling, Don Lemon.
00:00:35.000 The stock market continues to do really well.
00:00:39.000 This has forced Don Lemon into the awkward position of saying the stock market is not the economy.
00:00:44.000 Now, again, this is usually what people out of power say the stock market is not the economy.
00:00:49.000 And it's true, the stock market is not the entire economy.
00:00:51.000 But it turns out that the stock market does have something to do with the economy, particularly if the inflation is not outsized.
00:00:57.000 And absent the Strait of Hormuz, inflation would not be outsized right now.
00:01:01.000 But here was Don Lemon.
00:01:05.000 The stock market is not the economy.
00:01:07.000 The stock market is a measure of how much money rich people are making.
00:01:11.000 It is not the economy.
00:01:13.000 It is not a sign of the health of the economy.
00:01:15.000 It is a sign of the health of wealthy people, people who are able to afford stocks, who have investments, who have 401ks.
00:01:24.000 Most of those people are upper middle class if you can afford a 401k, and still those folks are struggling.
00:01:29.000 But the wealthy people are doing very well, and that is why the stock market is doing well because they're investing in it, because they're making money hand over fist.
00:01:38.000 62% of American adults have stock in their 401k, in their retirement accounts, 62% of Americans.
00:01:43.000 In fact, the stock market does bear a relation to the economy.
00:01:46.000 Also, not just in direct gains.
00:01:48.000 It turns out you need giant funds of liquidity, which is where liquidity comes from.
00:01:52.000 When you go public, the idea is you are selling your stock in order to take money into a company that you can then expend on your employees and on growth of the company.
00:02:01.000 SpaceX is about to make a bunch of people an absolute fortune.
00:02:04.000 So, SpaceX, one of the most successful companies in American history, the IPO is going to be extraordinary.
00:02:10.000 But who are the beneficiaries?
00:02:11.000 It is not just Elon Musk, contrary to public opinion.
00:02:14.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, the beneficiaries include not just engineers and other white collar workers, but the legions of technicians who build the company's rockets, as well as baristas and other salaried employees who work at SpaceX campuses in California, Texas, and Florida.
00:02:27.000 Some have held on to stakes that were valued at less than two bucks a share when they were granted, and the company hadn't yet landed a rocket.
00:02:33.000 Juan Hernandez, an immigrant from the U.S. to Mexico, learned how to weld because the pay was good.
00:02:37.000 In 2015, he heard about a job opportunity at SpaceX.
00:02:40.000 He started as a contractor for $28 an hour, and then he was hired full time.
00:02:44.000 He was given an equity stake valued at $10,000 that vested over five years.
00:02:48.000 In 2020, he began selling off small chunks of his stake as SpaceX hit a $36 billion valuation.
00:02:54.000 He used the money to buy properties around Texas and build a small real estate business with his wife.
00:02:58.000 And his remaining shares are worth around $880,000 at the IPO price.
00:03:02.000 He's a welder.
00:03:04.000 He's a welder.
00:03:05.000 Apparently, some 4,000 people are going to become millionaires because of the SpaceX IPO.
00:03:11.000 Thousands of past and current SpaceX employees with company shares will soon be able to access life changing fortunes after the company makes its stock market debut.
00:03:20.000 That is also true for people with stakes in Anthropic and OpenAI, which will also IPO.
00:03:27.000 One person who used to work at the company has been in a debate with Eric Franklin, a wealth advisor who caters to tech company employees.
00:03:34.000 The former employee has company shares worth $21.4 million at the IPO price SpaceX set last week.
00:03:41.000 That represents 93% of his household's investable net worth.
00:03:45.000 And Franklin is advising him, hey, dude, you might want to de risk yourself, get a little bit of money out.
00:03:49.000 That would be smart advice.
00:03:50.000 But the fact is, again, it turns out that companies building themselves up makes people money.
00:03:55.000 It is a good thing.
00:03:57.000 June marks the first days of summer.
00:03:59.000 That means that I got a lot of things going on, spending a lot of time with the kids.
00:04:02.000 Obviously, we're having another baby this summer, God willing.
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00:05:04.000 So, right now, SpaceX is offering a take it or leave it price of $135 a share rather than providing a range and pricing the deal based on demand.
00:05:12.000 That's usually what happens in IPOs.
00:05:15.000 So, usually pricing takes place the evening before a market debut, according to CNBC.
00:05:20.000 In the weeks leading up to a point, the issuer, in tandem with underwriters, provide a price range and then they lift it if the investors show signs of enthusiasm.
00:05:28.000 SpaceX isn't doing any of that.
00:05:30.000 The company said $135 is the share price, $1.77 trillion is the anticipated market cap.
00:05:39.000 Now, the company generates something like $19 billion in revenue last year.
00:05:43.000 They recorded an operating loss of $4.2 billion.
00:05:46.000 So that is an extraordinary valuation.
00:05:47.000 Of course, they are saying the tech is the real investment, that SpaceX will dominate the entire space industry.
00:05:55.000 However, to me, it looks like a very rich IPO.
00:05:57.000 With that said, is it going to generate wealth for an enormous number of people?
00:06:00.000 You bet.
00:06:02.000 The same thing is going to happen with OpenAI.
00:06:05.000 OpenAI is looking for an $840 billion valuation.
00:06:11.000 OpenAI, of course, is the chat GPT company.
00:06:15.000 Anthropic confidentially filed for an IPO according to the New York Times.
00:06:19.000 They are trying to get a valuation of $900 billion.
00:06:24.000 It seems to me that Anthropic is a better position because they've shown actual profit at this point.
00:06:29.000 Claude Opus 4.5, which is, again, an extraordinary system.
00:06:33.000 I've been using it.
00:06:33.000 It really is incredible.
00:06:34.000 It builds things for you, it actually is active in the workplace.
00:06:40.000 It's amazing.
00:06:41.000 Their revenues are soaring.
00:06:43.000 So, AI is finally generating the kinds of profits that are necessary to prop up the arguments about productivity and also market valuation.
00:06:51.000 Innovation is the lifeblood of the American economy, and the innovation is not stopping, unless, of course, Democrats do their best to stop it.
00:07:01.000 So, now it turns out that there are a lot of people who are upset about technology and innovation.
00:07:06.000 I know, as usual.
00:07:08.000 Apparently, some people are pissed off at the Pepsi driverless trucks.
00:07:13.000 So, Pepsi has now launched a bunch of driverless trucks.
00:07:16.000 And this is creating upset because there are a lot of drivers who make their living driving these trucks around the country.
00:07:23.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, a 26,000 pound box truck loaded with Doritos and Frito Lay chips rolls out of a distribution center bound for a Walmart store about four miles away.
00:07:31.000 It looks like any other truck, but there's no one at the wheel.
00:07:34.000 This is one of the 35 driverless trucks PepsiCo is running on Arizona roads, marking it as the first major U.S. consumer goods company to disclose the real life, large scale use of autonomous trucks on public roads.
00:07:46.000 PepsiCo has been working directly with a company called Gaddock since 2022 to perfect the technology.
00:07:51.000 They operated with a safety driver in each truck for a few years.
00:07:54.000 They started driverless runs in June 2025, and there have been no accidents on public roads so far.
00:08:04.000 Here's some pictures of the Gaddock autonomous trucks.
00:08:09.000 And this is, you can see here, you've got the computer.
00:08:12.000 The computer is basically doing exactly what a Tesla self drive would do.
00:08:15.000 I have to say, Tesla self drive is incredible.
00:08:17.000 It's incredible.
00:08:18.000 So my parents are 70.
00:08:19.000 That means the reaction time is not what it was when they were 35.
00:08:22.000 And at night, their vision isn't that great.
00:08:23.000 They have to get a new car because thank God my dad is okay, but he was broadsided by somebody.
00:08:29.000 He's fine.
00:08:31.000 But the car got totaled, and now they have to get a new car.
00:08:35.000 And they were looking at a bunch of different cars.
00:08:36.000 And the thing that sold them on Tesla was the fact that it has a self driving capacity.
00:08:42.000 That's great.
00:08:43.000 It means that a bunch of people who are bad drivers on the roads, or a bunch of people who may be having weaker vision than they had 30 years ago, or lower reaction time, or more distractibility, they can now drive without paying too much attention to the road, and they're not going to crash.
00:08:58.000 This is a good thing.
00:08:59.000 It is better for people.
00:09:02.000 Listen, I love driving, but I will say that Tesla self drive makes my life markedly better.
00:09:09.000 And more cars on the road that are not broadsiding my father would be a good thing.
00:09:13.000 I would like that to be a thing.
00:09:16.000 It also means the prices are going to come down.
00:09:17.000 You want to talk about productivity increases?
00:09:19.000 You don't have to pay a union driver to drive your Gaddock truck because the computer is doing it.
00:09:24.000 It can drive 24 hours a day.
00:09:27.000 All you need is somebody to gas the thing up.
00:09:30.000 I understand that there are people who are deeply worried about how innovation, quote unquote, kills jobs.
00:09:34.000 It creates job transitions.
00:09:35.000 That is true.
00:09:36.000 It has always been true.
00:09:37.000 Technological change always creates transition pains when it comes to jobs.
00:09:43.000 With that said, is it better for the American consumer?
00:09:46.000 Is it better for the American drivers?
00:09:47.000 Is it better for people on the roads if we have more driverless cars?
00:09:50.000 Cars, absolutely.
00:09:51.000 That is a good thing.
00:09:52.000 Innovation and investment are good things. 0.98
00:09:54.000 That's another thing that will go away if Democrats retake the White House in 2028.
00:10:00.000 And then I suppose that.
00:10:02.000 You can have, you know, tiny homes.
00:10:06.000 That's what Seattle has been pushing for.
00:10:09.000 Seattle, apparently, according to Fox 13, has now opened a new village featuring 75 individual units, each measuring approximately 70 square feet.
00:10:16.000 The way they're going to overcome their rental market being too high because they haven't allowed development for a long time is to basically build you a storage facility, like a storage unit, and then you can live in it.
00:10:27.000 Awesome.
00:10:30.000 The Interbase site is the first major project to open under Mayor Wilson's shelter expansion initiative.
00:10:35.000 The initiative originally set a target to establish 500 new shelter units by mid June.
00:10:40.000 They got 75.
00:10:42.000 75.
00:10:42.000 So they are now creating basically small boxes for homeless people to live in, which will end with the homeless people trashing the small boxes because this is what happens with public housing.
00:10:52.000 Here's the mayor, Katie Wilson, defending this nonsense.
00:10:55.000 So again, the model here is low barrier, high support.
00:10:58.000 So we are not requiring treatment for people entering this.
00:11:01.000 And this is really an evidence based model that we've seen be successful.
00:11:05.000 And so basically, you're bringing people in knowing that.
00:11:07.000 The process of recovery is really complicated and difficult.
00:11:11.000 And so we're not demanding that people be, you know, abstinent when they enter this village, but there are going to be, you know, there's kind of repeated efforts to kind of help people along into treatment.
00:11:22.000 And so that treatment will always be available and encouraged.
00:11:27.000 Okay.
00:11:27.000 So obviously this will work out beautifully.
00:11:30.000 Because if you just take the drunk dorms, that's what they were called in Seattle, and you shift them into individual units, probably it'll get better, not worse.
00:11:36.000 How could it fail?
00:11:37.000 And great democratic policy happening all across the country.