Lauren Webster
Lauren Webster is a managing director in the technology investment banking group at Piper Sandler, focused on technology, security, and software. She previously was a partner at DBO Partners and has experience advising enterprise technology, cybersecurity, aerospace, and defense companies, as well as operating experience at cybersecurity companies RedOwl Analytics and Forcepoint.
SpaceX IPO Pitch Seeks $2 Trillion Valuation on AI and Mars
Bloomberg Technology’s Ed Ludlow framed SpaceX’s Nasdaq IPO filing as a test of whether public investors will underwrite Elon Musk’s farthest-reaching claims: a company seeking a valuation above $2 trillion, as much as $75 billion in proceeds and a $28.5 trillion addressable market built largely on AI, Starlink and Mars. Bloomberg reporters and guests said the filing asks investors to look past large losses, debt and Musk’s continuing control, while treating Starship and space-based infrastructure as central to the valuation case rather than speculative side projects. The program placed that pitch alongside Nvidia’s effort to prove AI demand is broadening beyond hyperscalers and possible OpenAI and Anthropic filings that could bring similar public-market scrutiny to frontier AI.
SpaceX IPO Pitch Asks Investors to Price AI, Starlink, and Mars
Piper Sandler technology investment banking head Lauren Webster told Bloomberg’s Ed Ludlow that SpaceX’s preliminary IPO filing is “aspirational” but not unusual for a prospectus built around a large future market. Her reading is that the filing asks investors to underwrite three linked bets — SpaceX’s launch business, Starlink-enabled connectivity, and a much harder-to-measure AI opportunity — while treating Elon Musk’s control and Starship risk as familiar parts of the investment case rather than disqualifying surprises.
Apple Explores Intel and Samsung for U.S. Chip Production
Mark Gurman said Apple has held early talks with Intel and Samsung about using new U.S. fabs to make future A-series and M-series processors, an exploratory move he framed as a supply-chain redundancy question rather than only a political one. Apple still relies heavily on TSMC, primarily in Taiwan, and Gurman described that geographic and supplier concentration as one of the company’s biggest risks. Across the rest of the broadcast, executives and analysts described a similar shift from exposure to execution: AI companies are giving Washington early model access for review, while enterprise adoption is being tested by security, deployment cost and proprietary data advantages.
AI Panic Gives Way to Company-by-Company Software Stock Sorting
Lauren Webster of Piper Sandler argues that the software market is moving from broad AI panic to a more selective test of execution, durability and exposure to disruption. In a Bloomberg Technology discussion, she said layoffs at PayPal and Coinbase should be read as both a response to investor pressure for profitability and, in some cases, evidence of AI-driven labor displacement. Her framework puts more value on software that is deeply embedded in enterprise workflows and harder to replace.