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Jun 06, 2025
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TGIF! President Trump threatens to cancel government contracts held by Elon Musk’s companies. Anysphere, the maker of popular coding assistant Cursor, surpasses $500 million in annualized revenue. Shares of stablecoin issuer Circle jumps in their first day of trading.
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President Trump threatened to cancel “billions and billions of dollars” in government contracts held by Elon Musk’s companies, as a simmering feud between the two men broke into open on social media. Musk seemed to endorse Trump’s impeachment in one post, while warning that Trump’s tariffs would cause a recession. Tesla shares fell 14% in response to the drama. The feud was sparked by Musk’s steady criticism of the Big Beautiful Budget bill now wending its way through Congress, which is Trump’s big legislative initiative. Musk complains the bill would increase the deficit. But on Thursday, Trump told reporters he was “very disappointed” in Musk and later posted on his TruthSocial platform that Musk “went CRAZY!” because the budget bill kills electric vehicle incentives. Musk responded with a series of tweets, including one that alleged Trump was in the Jeffrey Epstein files. Musk also responded to Trump’s contract cancellation threat by tweeting that SpaceX “will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.” The Dragon is NASA’s primary vehicle for ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station. It proved vital earlier this year in returning two astronauts after NASA decided to send Boeing’s Starliner capsule back to Earth without them due to concerns about the spaceship’s integrity.
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Shares of stablecoin issuer Circle jumped more than 180% in their first day of trading, reaching a market value of $17.8 billion as investors rushed into the first big crypto initial public offering under President Donald Trump. The debut could bode well for other crypto and fintech companies seeking to go public this year. Circle’s shares opened at $69 per share, after pricing at $31 apiece in its $1.1 billion initial public offering. It surged to as high as $103.7, triggering a circuit breaker. Stablecoins are crypto tokens pegged 1:1 to U.S. dollars, backed by assets such as cash and U.S. Treasurys. Circle issues USDC, the second largest stablecoin with $61 in market circulation. They are mostly used by crypto traders to park their money on the blockchain and for cross-border payments. Jeremy Allaire, chief executive officer of Circle, said it became clear during the roadshow last week that Circle could have a very successful IPO. “We met with a lot of investors, and virtually every single one of them placed an order in this IPO,” he said from the New York Stock Exchange Thursday. “I think what people see in this company is that the internet is colliding with the financial system.” Asked about earlier reports that Ripple and Coinbase had expressed interest in buying Circle, Allaire said Circle has not been for sale. It’s central for the company to be independent in order to provide a “neutral” product that can be used by a wide range of firms, including banks and fintech firms, he said. “This is a multi-decade project, and it’s still multiple decades ahead for me, at least,” he said. Allaire expects
that Congress will pass stablecoin legislation this year.
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Anysphere, the maker of popular coding assistant Cursor, has surpassed $500 million in annualized revenue, according to Bloomberg. The revenue milestone is more than double its pace of $200 million in annual recurring, or subscription, revenue as of March. The company did not respond to requests for comment. It’s unclear what led to such a rapid revenue increase over the last three months. The San Francisco-based startup has also finalized its latest fundraising round, a $900 million financing at a $9.9 billion round. Investors in the round for the three-year-old startup include Thrive Capital, Accel and DST Global. With the new funding, Cursor has raised more than $1 billion since launching in January 2023.
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Indonesia’s largest sovereign wealth fund is in talks to participate in a potential deal where Singaporean ride-hailing and food-delivery firm Grab would acquire its Indonesian rival GoTo Group, Bloomberg News reported. The fund, Danantara Indonesia, is considering taking a minority stake in the merged entity, according to Bloomberg. The sovereign wealth fund’s participation in what could be Southeast Asia’s largest tech acquisition deal could help mitigate the Indonesian government’s concerns about Singapore’s Grab taking control of GoTo, Indonesia’s largest homegrown tech firm. The potential deal between Grab and GoTo, which could be valued at more than $7 billion, has faced obstacles because of potential requirements from regulators, according to Bloomberg.
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China’s Alibaba Group said the digital payments unit of Indonesian tech firm GoTo Group is now using Alibaba’s cloud computing platform, in the latest indication of how China’s biggest cloud providers are increasing their presence in Southeast Asia. GoTo Financial, which previously used cloud services from U.S. providers such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, has just completed its migration to Alibaba Cloud. The migration came after Alibaba Cloud and GoTo announced a partnership in September. GoTo Group, which offers everything from ride hailing and food delivery to e-commerce and e-wallet services, is also working with another Chinese cloud provider, Tencent Cloud. Earlier this week, Tencent said GoTo’s on-demand services business had migrated to Tencent Cloud’s platform. While Chinese cloud providers like Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud grapple with fierce competition at home, they are also looking for opportunities to expand overseas. Southeast Asia, a diverse region with a total population of nearly 700 million people, has become a major battleground where Chinese competitors are trying to challenge U.S. cloud giants.
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By Natasha Mascarenhas and Aaron Holmes
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