Tech stocks claw back part of $2.5T rout as hosts debate Anthropic's IPO price

A $2.5 trillion rout gives way to a partial rebound

The hosts opened by noting stocks had fallen hard before recovering: Thursday's selloff was described as "the worst day on record since June 5th, 2026," when $1.87 trillion was lost, with earlier comparable routs on April 3 and April 4, 2025. By the next session, NASDAQ was up 1.38%, and the host noted the move came "two days after the midterm elections" swept "a block of artificial intelligence skeptics into power." They cited an FT piece noting Wall Street had posted its biggest three-month gain the day before the rout, with Brent crude closing below $100 a barrel and tightening spreads in Europe signaling optimism elsewhere, even as semiconductor and neocloud names bore the brunt of selling.

Commentary quoted from the chat included Mike Bird suggesting the dip "could be quite a buying opportunity here if stocks bounce back... not if they sell off further though," and Gavin Baker's quip that rebuilding civilization after a hypothetical nuclear war "would need a lot of robots and GPUs," which the hosts read as bullish for AI stocks. Jim Chanos was quoted warning against "selling your high beta tech stocks already down 40 to 70%... to buy low or no growth consumer names at 30 to 100x earnings."

Anthropic's IPO valuation keeps sliding

The hosts tracked reports that Anthropic's rumored IPO valuation fell from an original $2 trillion figure toward $1.5 trillion, then further speculation of $1.2-1.3 trillion. Polymarket odds of an IPO happening by November 24 dropped from around 70-75% to 49%. One host argued this shouldn't change investor conviction: "If you liked this company in summer, you should love it now because you potentially are going to get in at a massive discount."

They also mentioned Anthropic's reported $80 billion ARR figure as a positive offset to a weaker Q3, and cited a claim that Claude itself estimated a "fair" public market cap of "$500 billion and 800 billion" for Anthropic — roughly half the higher rumored figures — which the hosts jokingly attributed to Claude being "humble" rather than bearish.

A strong jobs report and hedge funds caught offside

October payrolls came in at 165,000 against a forecast the hosts said was 59,000, with unemployment at 4.1%. One host flagged 19,000 new manufacturing jobs as more structurally significant than healthcare-driven gains. They cited Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok's point that unemployment has stayed under 5% for roughly five years, nearing a 64-month record stretch from 1965-1970, and discussed the idea of sustained 20%-plus GDP growth as an AI-driven possibility, comparing AI "tokens" to oil as an economically deployable resource.

The hosts then ran through hedge fund headlines from the AI-stock selloff: Vara reportedly down 33% in October, Kirkoswald called its "worst ever month," and Whale said to be returning capital. By contrast, Lead Edge Capital was cited saying its public fund was "up 32% gross year to date" and down only 1.2% on the worst day.

Cybertruck winds down, and wave-pool luxury real estate gets scrutinized

The hosts discussed reporting that Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production next year after roughly 73,000 units shipped since late 2023, far below Musk's original targets of up to a million units annually and an initial promised price near $39,900 versus an eventual roughly $61,000 starting price. One host, a Cybertruck owner, said:

"It really should never have shipped... but I'm glad it did because it like looks completely insane."

They noted Musk himself conceded Tesla "dug our own grave with Cybertruck."

Separately, the hosts covered a Wall Street Journal piece on man-made surf lagoons anchoring luxury developments in Texas, Utah and Arizona, including a buyer who put down a $600,000 deposit on a Cabo lot despite being across the street from the ocean, and a Utah project charging $500 a month HOA plus $30-$200 hourly surf fees. One host was skeptical of paying for artificial waves near a real ocean, while noting capex-heavy wave technology can make older pools feel outdated quickly.