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Gold and silver have been everywhere last week.

At this point, even my dog probably has a view on gold.

So before we all start seeing bullion in our dreams, let’s give the metals a quick timeout today.

We’re turning our head to two other stories that are just as interesting.

Enjoy reading.

This didn’t just get closer to a deal. It got closer to a public company.

Bloomberg first said SpaceX and xAI were in “advanced talks.”
Now there’s an internal memo saying they’ve merged — with a target valuation around $1.25–$1.5 trillion.

On the surface, this looks like Elon Musk combining two of his companies.
Underneath, it looks like him designing a story the public markets can actually price.

1\ Here’s why.

SpaceX alone is an extraordinary business — rockets, satellites, Starlink, manufacturing, launch contracts — but it’s still a capital-intensive, long-cycle company. Great technology. Harder multiples.

xAI, on the other hand, is pure future optionality.
High-margin. High-growth. Very “marketable” to public investors.

Put them together, and you don’t just get a space company.
You get a space + AI platform.

Rockets + satellites + compute + data + distribution (X). That’s a stack.

From an IPO perspective, that matters.

Public markets tend to pay up for:
→ Platforms
→ Ecosystems
→ Vertical integration
→ AI exposure
→ Scarce assets with network effects

A standalone SpaceX IPO would have been massive.
A combined SpaceX/xAI IPO is designed to be legendary.

2\ In fact, the timeline now looks real.

SpaceX is reportedly targeting a mid-June IPO, possibly around June 9 — when Jupiter and Venus align in the night sky. (Of course Musk would time a $1.5 trillion IPO to a cosmic event.)

The company is aiming to raise up to $50 billion, which would make this the largest IPO by capital raised in history. At a ~$1.5 trillion valuation, it would likely be the second-most valuable IPO ever, behind only Saudi Aramco.

OpenAI might try to rival it this year — but SpaceX would still be the heavyweight.

And retail investors are already positioning.

A private fund that holds SpaceX shares has seen inflows surge more than 200% since IPO rumors began. People are already trying to get in before this thing ever hits the public tape.

For Musk personally, the stakes are staggering.

He owns roughly 42% of SpaceX — which could be worth $600+ billion at the target valuation. That’s more than triple the value of his current Tesla stake.

3\ There’s another signal buried in the reporting though: Tesla fading to the background.

Earlier leaks floated Tesla as part of the tie-up.
Now, in the latest stories that move the deal forward, Tesla is barely mentioned.

Translation:
Musk isn’t trying to blur SpaceX with Tesla — he’s trying to separate their destinies.

1) SpaceX becomes the space + AI powerhouse.
2)Tesla stays the robotics, autonomy, and energy company.

Two different public-market stories. Cleaner. Easier to value.

Then there’s the “data centers in space” angle.

Most people read that as sci-fi. Markets will read it as capex with a moonshot narrative.

If SpaceX can even partially pull this off, it turns satellites into:
→ Power infrastructure
→ Compute infrastructure
→ AI infrastructure

So when you hear “$1.25 trillion IPO,” don’t think big number.

Think:
Musk is packaging scarcity (rockets), distribution (Starlink), and AI into one ticket — and selling it to public investors as the next-generation infrastructure company.

In other words:
This merger isn’t just about control.
It’s about valuation.

A tiny government task force working out of a strip mall just finished a 20-year mission.
And with almost no media coverage, they confirmed one of the largest U.S. territorial expansions in modern history...

A resource claim worth an estimated $500 trillion.

Thanks to sovereign U.S. law, this isn't just a national asset.
It's an American birthright.

That means every citizen now has the legal right to stake a claim...

But very few even know the opportunity exists.
If you want to see how you can get in line for your portion of this record-breaking windfall...
I've assembled everything you need to see inside a new, time-sensitive briefing:

Get all the details here - while the claim window remains open.

Rare earths are boring… You don’t hear much about them and mostly only notice them when something breaks — or when Washington starts spending $12 billion.

That’s what Project Vault is.

A new U.S. critical-minerals stockpile — basically the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but for metals most of us can’t pronounce, like gallium, cobalt, and lanthanum that sit inside EVs, chips, satellites, and defense systems.

Roughly $12 billion in capital — $10 billion from the U.S. Export-Import Bank plus about $1.7 billion from private investors — aimed at creating a civilian critical-minerals reserve.

Here’s how it’s supposed to work (quickly):

• Manufacturers commit to buy certain materials at a set price in the future.
• They pay some fees up front.
• Trading houses (Hartree, Traxys, Mercuria) source and store the metals.
• Companies can draw down their stash in a crisis — as long as they refill it later.

Plain English:
Washington would be helping industry pre-fund a shared inventory, so companies aren’t exposed if global supply suddenly seizes up.

Why is this happening?
Because China still dominates the processing of many critical minerals — and last year’s export controls made that dependence feel very real, very fast.

The market reacted immediately.

Rare-earth and critical-metals stocks jumped in premarket trading — names like MP Materials, USA Rare Earth, Critical Metals, NioCorp, and U.S. Antimony.

Here is how they ended:
→ MP Materials $MP ( ▲ 0.58% )
→ USA Rare Earth $USAR ( ▼ 1.38% )
→ Critical Metals CRML ( ▼ 4.4% )
→ NioCorp NB ( ▲ 4.41% )
→ United States Antimony UAMY ( ▲ 7.23% )

Long-term demand became more visible — and policy-backed.

One more detail: This would be a civilian stockpile. The U.S. already has reserves for defense needs. Project Vault is aimed at automakers, tech firms, and other manufacturers.

That’s new.

On September 14th, 2023, something big happened.

You didn't see it on the news. They didn't want you to.

The price gap between London gold and Shanghai gold blew out to $120 an ounce.

For years, that gap was a few dollars. Maybe $5. Sometimes $10.

$120 is a 20x jump. In seconds.

That's not a 'glitch.' That's the system breaking.

Traders saw it. They tried to buy gold in London to sell it in Shanghai. Easy money, right?

But they hit a wall.

Why? The London vaults were empty.

The screen said 'Gold for Sale.' But when they went to get it... there was nothing there.

Since that day, gold has hit 53 all-time highs. It keeps running.

I've found one stock set to capture the bulk of this wealth transfer. I call it the 'Shadow Miner.'

Get the name and ticker here >>>

"The Buck Stops Here"

Behind the Markets

Here’s where we start the week.
We’ll keep an eye on who’s quietly getting ready — and why it matters for you.

More on Wednesday.

Got a market or stock you want us to analyze next?

Just drop your request in the comments here.

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