The Week in Private Markets: Jio's 22x IPO, Anthropic's IPO Math, EQT's €10.8B Buyout and Eight $1B+ Rounds
By Jose Ruiz · · 8 min read
Good morning, crowd.
It's Sunday, so here's the week in private markets in one place: the six stories that moved the money, ranked, plus what to watch next week.
In this week's private markets rundown:
🇮🇳 India's biggest IPO drew 22x the demand
🧾 Anthropic's IPO math, in three numbers
🚀 The $3.5 trillion Musk merger question
🧪 EQT's €10.8B take-private
🦄 Eight $1B+ valuations in one week
⚡ The AI boom hits a power wall
Quick game: guess before you read story 1.
Quick game: which group bid hardest for India's biggest IPO? |
Read time: 6 minutes
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THE 6 STORIES THAT MOVED THE MONEY
1. IPOS
🇮🇳 India's Biggest IPO Drew 22x the Demand
The Rundown: Jio Platforms, Mukesh Ambani's telecom and digital business, closed its IPO on Friday. Buyers asked for about 22 times more shares than were for sale.
The details:
22.19x overall demand by Friday evening in India
70.55x from big institutions, versus just 2.72x from everyday retail investors
₹1,065–1,119 a share, raising about ₹30,213 crore at the top of the range and valuing Jio near $108B
Oct 28: first day of trading on India's BSE and NSE
Why it matters: Meta and Google bought into Jio in 2020 at about $65B. This is the first public price on one of the decade's biggest private tech bets, and demand this strong tells bankers the window for mega IPOs is wide open, just as Anthropic gets ready.
The final subscription numbers · The IPO, explained
2. THE IPO COUNTDOWN
🧾 Anthropic's IPO Math, in Three Numbers
The Rundown: Anthropic's draft IPO prospectus, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, gave investors their first full look at the books before a listing that could come as soon as November.
The details:
$16.3B: revenue in the first half of 2026, up from $1.1B a year earlier
$80.7B: net loss in the same period, but about $72B of it is a noncash accounting charge
~20%: of revenue from just two customers
Why it matters: At a $2 trillion price, Anthropic would trade at roughly 30 times its third-quarter revenue run rate. Whatever it prices at becomes the benchmark for every AI company raising money in private markets.
Your call:
Would you buy Anthropic at a $2 trillion IPO valuation? |
The prospectus numbers · Saturday's breakdown
3. THE MERGER QUESTION
🚀 The $3.5 Trillion Musk Merger Question
The Rundown: Four months after its IPO, SpaceX is studying a merger with Tesla. Both boards set up committees of independent directors, and Musk, who controls both, is kept out of the talks.
The details:
~$2.1T + ~$1.5T: SpaceX and Tesla's values, about $3.5T combined
~82%: Musk's share of SpaceX votes today, through 10-vote Class B shares
~0.7 SpaceX shares per Tesla share in an all-stock deal, Barclays estimates, leaving Musk with about 56% of the combined vote
$135 to ~$147: SpaceX's June IPO price versus Friday morning
Why it matters: Big pension funds like CalPERS already call SpaceX's share structure one of the most management-friendly ever brought to US markets. A merger would decide how much say Tesla's public shareholders keep. Watch Tesla's annual meeting, due by Dec 6.
The committees, explained · The governance fight
4. DEAL OF THE WEEK
🧪 EQT Takes Qiagen Private for €10.8 Billion
The Rundown: Swedish private equity firm EQT agreed on Thursday to buy German diagnostics company Qiagen for €46.50 a share in cash.
The details:
40.3% premium to Qiagen's price on July 8, before buyout talk began
~€10.8B enterprise value, about $12.1B, including roughly $1.1B of net debt
Co-investors: a unit of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Canada's CPP Investments
Mid-2027: expected closing, if more than 50% of shares are tendered
Why it matters: Last week a Thoma Bravo company bought Varonis at a 52% premium. This week it's EQT at 40%. Private equity keeps paying big premiums to pull companies off the stock market, and sovereign wealth funds are writing checks alongside it.
5. VENTURE
🦄 Eight $1B+ Valuations in One Week
The Rundown: AI startups set big new prices almost every day this week, and half of these companies were only at their Series A or B.
The details:
Legora, AI for lawyers: $8.8B, up from about $5.6B, on more than $200M in annual recurring revenue
Flapping Airplanes, cheaper AI training: $6B on a $1B Series A, with no product yet
Whop, digital products marketplace: $5.1B
ASI, AI for air traffic and logistics: $3B
Arda ($1.5B), Eka Robotics ($1.45B), Blacksmith ($1B) and Daytona ($1B)
Why it matters: Four of the eight hit a $1B+ price at Series A or B. Investors are paying today for revenue they hope comes later, which is exactly why Anthropic's IPO price matters so much.
This week's rounds · More rounds · Legora
6. THE WARNING SIGN
⚡ The AI Boom Hits a Power Wall
The Rundown: The bill for AI showed up this week, and in one case the power simply wasn't there.
The details:
Australian data center operator NextDC lost about 42% on Wednesday after power delays pushed back a Melbourne project. It cut its 2027 revenue forecast by about a fifth and paused new projects
Meta burned about $2.1B of cash in the quarter as AI spending soared. Its stock fell about 7%
Tesla has spent $13B of its more-than-$25B spending plan through September
By Thursday, some analysts were asking whether AI spending has peaked
Why it matters: Much of the AI build-out is paid for with private credit. If power, not chips, becomes the bottleneck, lenders and data center investors will be the first to reprice it.
The NextDC drop · Meta's quarter · The sell-off
QUICK HITS
📰 Everything else in private markets
DeepSeek is reportedly nearing a round of up to about $15B, with Tencent and CATL among the backers. Read more
Meta is creating non-voting Class C shares on Jan 19, 2027, so it can raise money without diluting Mark Zuckerberg's control. Read more
Crown Castle jumped about 12% on reports that SpaceX is in talks to lease its US cell towers. Read more
📅 What to watch next week
Monday, Oct 26: Jio Platforms allots its shares
Wednesday, Oct 28: Jio starts trading. About 19.4M Cerebras shares unlock. Apple holds its launch event, and the Fed announces rates
Next week: Alphabet reports earnings
Week of Nov 9: Anthropic's roadshow could start, and Anduril's employee share sale at about $90B closes
Number of the week: 70x. That's how much more Jio stock big institutions wanted than was on offer. Everyday investors? Just 2.7x. The pros are fighting hardest for the biggest IPOs.
🎓 Catch up on Founderscrowd
Friday: Databricks went from a Berkeley lab to $190B. Is it worth it?
The Private Company Index: what the 100 biggest private companies are worth
🎯 Quick game answer
Big institutions. Banks and funds bid for about 70 times the shares set aside for them. Retail investors bid for about 2.7 times theirs. How did you do?
How did we do this week?
How did we do this week? |
Hit reply and tell us which private company you want us to break down next. We read every one.
See you Tuesday,
Jose, Alberto & the Founderscrowd Team
Disclaimer: Founderscrowd is a media company. We are not a broker-dealer, funding portal, investment adviser or financial planner, and we do not collect or hold investor funds. Nothing in this email is investment, legal or tax advice, or an offer to buy or sell any security. Views on any company or deal are the writers' opinions and are not tailored to you. Some content may be sponsored or affiliate-linked, and writers may hold positions in companies we cover. Data comes from third-party sources and is not guaranteed. Private market investments are speculative, illiquid and can lose their entire value, and many offerings are limited to accredited investors.
Quick answers
How oversubscribed was the Jio Platforms IPO?
By the evening of October 23, 2026, the final bidding day, Jio Platforms' IPO was subscribed 22.19 times overall, including 70.55 times by qualified institutional buyers and 2.72 times by retail investors. Shares are set to list on October 28, 2026.
How much is EQT paying for Qiagen?
On October 22, 2026, EQT agreed to buy Qiagen for €46.50 a share in cash, an enterprise value of about €10.8 billion, or roughly $12.1 billion. That is a 40.3% premium to Qiagen's July 8, 2026 closing price. Closing is expected in mid-2027.
What were the biggest startup valuations of the week of October 19, 2026?
Legora was valued at $8.8 billion, Flapping Airplanes at $6 billion, Whop at $5.1 billion and ASI at $3 billion. Arda, Eka Robotics, Blacksmith and Daytona were each valued at $1 billion to $1.5 billion.
Sources
HDFC Sky: Jio Platforms IPO subscription status on final day
TechCrunch: Ambani's Jio seeks to raise $3.2B
TechStartups (citing The Wall Street Journal): Anthropic's $80.7B first-half loss
Yahoo Finance: SpaceX and Tesla form merger committees
Fortune: Musk's $3.5 trillion merger talks
BioSpectrum Asia: EQT to acquire Qiagen in €10.8B take-private
TechStartups: Startup funding news, Oct 22, 2026
TechStartups: Startup funding news, Oct 21, 2026
Legora: Legora raises $550M Series E
TechStartups: Tech news, Oct 21, 2026 (NextDC)
TechStartups: Tech news, Oct 22, 2026 (DeepSeek)
Yahoo Finance / Simply Wall St: Meta stock sinks on AI cash strain
Electrek: Tesla Q3 2026 results
TheStreet: Stock market today, Oct 23, 2026
Stock Titan: Meta Class C shares
Images: Tesla Gigafactory Texas via Wikimedia Commons; illustrations for the Jio, Anthropic, Qiagen, venture and data center stories are AI-generated.
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Disclaimer: Founderscrowds is a media company. We are not a broker-dealer, funding portal, investment adviser or financial planner, and we do not collect or hold investor funds. All content is for informational and educational purposes only and is not investment, legal or tax advice or an offer to buy or sell any security. Views on any company or deal are our writers' opinions. Some content is sponsored. Private market investments are speculative, illiquid and may result in the loss of your entire investment; many offerings are limited to accredited investors. Read full disclaimer
