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Move Over, Unicorns — Musk’s Hunting Hectocorns
From Billionaire to Hectocorn Herder: Musk’s $113B AI Play
George Babis
June 08, 2025
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Hellooo! It’s Sunday, and here’s a quick look at five major stories shaping tech, markets, and the world:
CrowdStrike Slides Despite Strong Earnings: The cybersecurity firm beat profit expectations but fell short on revenue, sending shares down 6% as costs from last year’s outage continue to pile up.
ChatGPT Tops Wikipedia in U.S. Traffic: Americans are now visiting ChatGPT more than Wikipedia — and spending more time doing so — marking a shift in how people search for information.
Musk’s xAI Eyes $113 Billion Valuation: A small secondary share sale hints at ambitions to make xAI one of the most valuable private companies on Earth — joining the likes of OpenAI and ByteDance.
Robinhood Soars to Near-Record Highs: Shares are up nearly 100% since April, approaching IPO-era levels, though some investors warn the hype may be ahead of fundamentals.
Mediterranean Sea Hits Record Temps Again: Back-to-back hottest years are accelerating concerns about sea level rise and ecosystem disruption, with 2024 on pace to break even more records.
From Glitch to Growth — But Investors Want More
CrowdStrike’s latest earnings report shows steady growth — but investors weren’t impressed. 🥱 The cybersecurity firm beat profit estimates with $0.73 EPS (vs. $0.66 expected) and posted $1.1B in revenue, slightly below forecasts. Despite 22% growth in annual recurring revenue and solid Q2 guidance, the stock slid over 6% after hours.
Lingering baggage from last year’s massive IT outage continues to weigh on the company. CrowdStrike reported another $39.7 million in costs related to the incident, adding to the $60 million already disclosed — with more costs expected from customer discounts. Still, the company has clawed back from the crash, with shares recently hitting record highs before this post-earnings dip.
ChatGPT Is Eating Wikipedia’s Lunch
ChatGPT is now officially beating Wikipedia in U.S. web traffic. 📚⚔️🤖 In April, ChatGPT logged 780 million site visits — a 14% jump from March — surpassing the long-dominant online encyclopedia for the first time. While Wikipedia still attracts more unique visitors, ChatGPT users tend to stick around longer and return more often, averaging around 14 visits per user. The shift confirms what viral charts already hinted: Americans are spending more time chatting with AI than reading encyclopedia entries. Despite this, Wikipedia’s global traffic remains steady at over 7.5 billion monthly visits.
Not Just a Unicorn — Musk Wants a Hectocorn
Elon Musk’s xAI is making a bold leap into ultra-rare startup territory, targeting a $113 billion valuation through a $300 million secondary share sale. If it lands, xAI would join the hectocorn club — a group so elite it includes only ByteDance, OpenAI, and SpaceX (also Musk-owned).
This minor offering, which lets early employees cash out, represents just 0.26% of xAI’s implied value. A bigger fundraising round may follow. The move would mark a major jump from the $33 billion valuation Musk paid for X (formerly Twitter) just months ago.
With over 1,200 unicorns roaming the world today, 🦄💸 Musk is aiming higher — to build one of the most valuable private companies ever.
Robinhood Is Rallying Like It’s 2021 Again
Robinhood shares just hit a 52-week high, closing at their highest level ever. 🥳 📈The online brokerage has nearly doubled in value since early April, fueled by a tech rally and strong Q1 earnings that beat Wall Street expectations.
Investors are bullish, pushing Robinhood’s valuation to a 48x forward earnings multiple — its highest in a year. While optimism runs high, the rapid price surge may be outpacing fundamentals.
The Med Is Boiling: Hottest Years on Record Back-to-Back
The Mediterranean Sea is heating up — fast. 🌊🌡️ In 2023, it recorded its hottest year ever, with surface temperatures rising over 0.5°C above the 1991–2020 average. And 2024 is likely to top that, especially after the hottest day ever recorded on August 15.
Statista’s new report warns that climate change, not just natural patterns, is pushing these temps higher. The consequences? Rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and a long-term impact on marine life — all part of a chain reaction triggered by warming waters.