SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI race to public markets amid $1.77tn AI spending spree.

The AI boom is entering a new phase. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which also builds artificial intelligence models, announced it is seeking a $1.77tn (£1.31tn) valuation on the US stock market. At the same time, Anthropic, the startup behind the Claude chatbot, said it had filed for an initial public offering. OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is expected to follow. These public listings come during a multitrillion-dollar spending spree on AI infrastructure, such as data centres. Companies are racing to deploy the technology in ways that make these investments worthwhile. But alarm bells are sounding. Consumer adoption is accelerating, yet returns remain hypothetical. Here is a look at where the AI boom stands, explained with six key charts.