Can Jeff Bezos Catch Elon Musk? Blue Origin at $130B | Reflection AI vs. DeepSeek | Interview with Shawn Bercuson

Welcome back to Trading Places, the weekly show covering the biggest stories in venture capital, private markets, AI, IPOs, and secondaries.This week, Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin make headlines with a $10B raise at a $130B valuation, igniting the next chapter in the battle with Elon Musk and SpaceX. We also break down OpenAI’s new multi-model strategy, the growing threat from open-weight AI models, Meta’s move into hyperscale cloud computing, Kalshi’s explosive valuation, and much more.Then we’re joined by Shawn Bercuson, Founder & CEO of Earlyasset Capital, for an in-depth conversation about the future of venture secondaries, liquidity, SPVs, private market investing, and why the next decade could fundamentally reshape private capital markets.Timestamps:00:56 — [ tech and vc news ]03:05 — setter top 30: the secondary scoreboard 🏆07:53 — ⁠us vs anthropic ceasefire 🤝12:11 — openai ships gpt-5.6: sol / terra / luna 🌕13:24 — china vs us ai: does cheap/open reset the race 🌏19:15 — meta back: low-cost models, rentable compute 🔋21:17 — $SKHY raises $26B, mkt cap >$1T 💾23:25 — blue origin: $10b on $130b 🚀26:33 — kalshi raising at $40b, polymarket lagging 🎲30:29 — [ intvw: Shawn Bercuson @ Earlyasset Capital ]⁠from groupon to secondaries: an origin story 🍩38:45 — bull vc: liquidity for distressed shares 🐂43:30 — the law of 30 (really 50) 📏46:18 — dailypay, SPVs, and the anthropic fallout ⚠️58:20 — ⁠⁠the private market in ‘27 and ‘28 🔮1:01:08 — [ valuation corner: Reflection AI @ $25B ]the raise and the team 💰1:04:35 — deepseek vs reflection: revenue and multiples 🇨🇳1:07:05 — mapping the ai landscape: cost vs efficacy 🗺️1:10:00 — coding assistants and the verdict on reflection 🤖[ links ][ invest = https://practicalvc.com ][ trading places socials = www.linktr.ee/tradingplacespod ][ shawn bercuson = https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnbercuson | https://earlyasset.com/ ][ aman verjee = https://www.linkedin.com/in/aman-verjee | https://x.com/amanverjee ][ dave mcclure = https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemcclure | https://x.com/davemcclure ]Thank you for watching#tradingplacespodcast #vcsecondary #SteveBercuson #davemcclure #BlueOrigin