TheChek News Flow

When Will We See a $100 Billion-Valuation Startup Go Public?

For years, there has been speculation about when $100 billion-plus private tech companies like Stripe, SpaceX and Databricks could go public. Now AI darlings OpenAI and Anthropic are on IPO watch.

Like every company that takes on significant venture capital, both companies have had early conversations with financial institutions about the possibility of eventually going public, according to our sources. “Talk of a potential IPO or other exit someday helps with late stage fundraising,” said Lise Buyer, partner and founder at Class V Group, an IPO advisory firm, since “people want a return on their dollars.”

But for the most part, for these mega private tech companies, it’s been all talk and little action. Now Anthropic has taken an early step, with the Financial Times reporting that it has hired Wilson Sonsini for IPO prep. It’s worth noting that law firms are hired very early in the journey, often years before an actual public debut. Industry observers speculate that most likely these AI IPOs won’t happen until 2027 or later.

Anthropic and OpenAI may have more incentive to go public than some of the other businesses that have delayed IPOs. The AI businesses are capital intensive and may want greater access to individual investors and other public funds than other similarly sized startups. The market is also particularly bullish on AI at the moment.

“Clearly they are growing rapidly, clearly they have needs for incremental funds,” said Buyer about the AI sector broadly.

She said that there could be added challenges when OpenAI and Anthropic finally debut, however. Both would likely want to raise large sums of capital, but issuing a huge amount of new shares could be challenging.

“If you flood the market with too much supply, you have the issue of where will subsequent demand come from,” she pointed out.

The cap tables could also get a bit complicated. Ever since the JOBS Act was instituted in 2012, private companies are no longer required to go public once they reach 500 shareholders, as they did in Facebook’s day. As a result, private companies now have thousands of shareholders, who often buy shares via secondary transactions.

This takes off some pressure on a company to go public. But when they do, many will likely want to sell. These startups will need to manage lock-ups, restrictions on when shareholders can sell in an IPO.

Buyer said for these mega companies, should they pursue an IPO, “The overall process of going public is unchanged, but the legal details of getting lockup signatures are significantly more complicated.”

Anthropic surely recognizes that it needs to get its legal team in order.

To a casual observer, OpenAI and Anthropic might have appeared—until recently—to be the Uber and Lyft of the AI world, with Anthropic the distant rival to the dominant OpenAI. That feels to be less the case nowadays. In fact, Anthropic—with its disciplined focus on serving businesses and expectations it will turn a profit several years before OpenAI does—is starting to look like a surer bet. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s appearance at The New York Times’ DealBook summit on Wednesday demonstrated why. Amodei came across as thoughtful in his approach to risk management, unlike an unnamed other person who, as Amodei put it, “constitutionally just wants to YOLO things.” (For more on the contrast between the two, check out this article.)

YOLO is the perfect description of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s growth strategy. The latest example was Thursday’s Wall Street Journal report that Altman had explored the idea of OpenAI buying control of a rocket company. Why stop at rockets? What about cars? Consider that in the past couple of years, Altman has expanded OpenAI’s purview from running the hugely popular ChatGPT to include designing its own chip, building data centers, designing AI-specific devices, developing hardware and software for robots, expanding ChatGPT into shopping, launching a web browser and a search engine, investing in a company affiliated with one of his main backers, Thrive, and partnering with a bunch of other companies to make ChatGPT a kind of superapp.

All this comes before OpenAI gets anywhere close to making money or finding a way to pay for the $1.4 trillion in commitments it has taken on to get enough computing capacity to run ChatGPT as it grows. It seems predictable, then, that as part of the “code red” Altman declared this week to fight an ascendant Google, he said OpenAI would delay some initiatives, as my colleagues reported.

If OpenAI investors are lucky, this code red will prove a permanent shift in strategy, where Altman decides to narrow his focus to the most important priorities, such as ensuring that ChatGPT retains its technological edge and gets to profitability sooner. That would mean ditching some of his more blue-sky projects (such as the devices). But there’s also a possibility that Altman is, to use Amodei’s word, constitutionally incapable of carrying out anything other than a YOLO-based strategy. If that’s the case, Altman might be better as OpenAI’s chair, in the role of thinking about the future, while someone with their feet on the ground actually runs the company. Perhaps OpenAI needs its own Dario Amodei.

Google has agreed to backstop Fluidstack’s leases to use three data centers currently under development. Fluidstack agreed to host Google’s TPUs in at least one New York–based data center. Anthropic said last month it planned to use up to 1 million TPUs as part of an expanded contract with Google and to invest $50 billion, alongside Fluidstack, in U.S.-based data centers.

Founded eight years ago, London-based Fluidstack has grown quickly over the past year as it has signed big contracts with customers, though it has raised scant equity funding to date.

Fluidstack has relied on borrowed money to fund its server costs. Earlier this year, it secured approval from lenders including Macquarie for more than $10 billion in credit backed by AI chips, including Nvidia’s.

Fluidstack in July projected it would generate more than $400 million in sales this year, The Information reported. It generated more than $65 million in revenue last year, according to a local regulator filing.

That would make Fluidstack a fraction the size of CoreWeave, which projected revenue will double this year to more than $5 billion. Crusoe and Lambda, two other privately held AI cloud providers, have raised a combined $2.9 billion over the past two months to expand their server rental businesses.

Cloud providers focused on AI, including Oracle, have lately faced questions about the profitability of renting out pricey AI chips and about the debt they’re raising to obtain the chips.

Aschenbrenner’s Ascent

Aschenbrenner graduated from Columbia University when he was 19 and previously worked at the Future Fund, a philanthropic fund started by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

At OpenAI, Aschenbrenner worked on techniques for developing AI safely. He was an ally of OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who participated in a failed effort to force out OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in late 2023.

In 2024, OpenAI pushed out Aschenbrenner, alleging he had improperly shared information with outsiders. He later said on the “Dwarkesh Podcast” that though he had shared a document with external researchers for feedback, he had removed sensitive information from it. Aschenbrenner said OpenAI took issue with the fact that the document revealed OpenAI was planning to reach “artificial general intelligence” by 2027 or 2028 and had not set “timelines for preparedness.”

“I didn’t think that planning horizon was sensitive,” Aschenbrenner said on the podcast. “It’s the sort of thing Sam says publicly all the time.”

Aschenbrenner also said he also shared a memo with OpenAI board members after a major security incident, which led to him receiving an “official HR warning.”

“The thing I understand, and in some sense it’s reasonable, is that I ruffled some feathers and was probably annoying at times with the security stuff,” he said.

Later last year, he published a manifesto on AGI titled “Situational Awareness,” and started an investment fund under the same name. He secured investments from former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, investor Daniel Gross, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison and Stripe President John Collison. The fund manages more than $1.5 billion and also invests in public semiconductor and infrastructure companies.

Paramount and Comcast have also offered div

Warner Bros Discovery has begun exclusive talks with Netflix for a sale of the legendary Hollywood group’s streaming and studio businesses, according to sources familiar with the auction.

Netflix, Paramount and Comcast have spent the past week scrambling to convince the board — and indirectly, Washington regulators — that they offer the clearest path forward. The bidding kicked off in November, with many Hollywood observers viewing Paramount, led by David Ellison and backed by his billionaire father Larry, as the frontrunner.

But Netflix has put forward the highest offer for WBD’s studio and streaming business, according to people involved in the process.

The streaming pioneer, which has disrupted the traditional film business and drawn the ire of many in Hollywood, is attracted to Warner Bros assets including HBO and its extensive library of films and television.

Netflix has also surprised many in Hollywood by offering assurances that it would continue to allow Warner Bros films to enjoy wide cinematic releases.

However, antitrust specialists warn a Netflix deal could be difficult to approve, given it would combine two of the top US streaming platforms. 

People close to the Trump administration’s regulatory officials have privately echoed that concern.

Netflix’s bid continues to face rising resistance inside Hollywood. James Cameron, the famed director of Titanic, The Terminator and the Avatar series, warned this week that selling Warner Bros to the streaming giant would trigger “a catastrophic loss of long-term value” for the industry. Other top talent have expressed similar unease, according to people familiar with the conversations.

Despite those tensions, WBD chief executive David Zaslav favours a merger with Netflix, partly because he would retain operational independence, a crucial consideration as he seeks to preserve his influence in Hollywood, according to people briefed about the matter. 

Paramount has made a slightly lower offer for WBD, according to people familiar with the matter. However, the group stunned rivals by committing to pay WBD a $5bn termination fee if the deal is agreed but not completed — a move that reflects its confidence that its bid could clear regulators swiftly.

People close to the Trump administration say the US president prefers a Paramount merger, as he likes the idea of CNN, now owned by WBD, and Paramount-owned CBS being controlled by the Ellisons.

Still, a Paramount takeover presents complications for Zaslav. Paramount has offered the WBD leader a co-chief executive role in the newly formed company, a role he does not find attractive, according to people familiar with the matter. Netflix would allow him to retain sole control of the Warner studio. But people briefed on the matter say the WBD board is not chiefly concerned with Zaslav’s future.

Comcast, meanwhile, is seen as slipping out of contention, though people close to the company insist it remains “very much in the mix”. They argue that the regulatory case for a Comcast-Warner Bros combination is cleaner than portrayed and reject the idea that Trump could sink the deal out of personal animus.

Bloomberg first reported that Netflix was in exclusive talks with WBD.

Ellison began pursuing WBD only weeks after closing an $8bn acquisition of Paramount this year, as he makes an ambitious push to build a Hollywood empire with the backing of his father, one of the wealthiest people in the world. 

Acquiring WBD — which owns the movie studio, HBO and franchises including Harry Potter, DC Comics and Batman — would help Paramount compete against larger rivals such as Netflix and Amazon. 

Any deal would dramatically reshape Hollywood, which has suffered thousands of lay-offs in recent years.

WBD and Paramount did not respond to requests for comment. Netflix and Comcast declined to comment

Netflix Enters Exclusive Deal Talks for Warner Bros. Discovery

Netflix has entered exclusive talks with Warner Bros. Discovery to acquire the company’s film and television studio, as well as the HBO Max streaming service, Variety confirms.

The development comes after a weeks-long bidding war for the assets at Warner Bros. Discovery between Netflix and rivals Paramount Skydance and Comcast. Paramount Skydance, under the newly minted studio CEO David Ellison, had sought to acquire the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery in an all-cash deal, while both Netflix and Comcast only submitted bids for the company’s studio and streaming businesses.

Prior to a potential sale to Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery would complete its plans to spin off its cable channels, including CNN, TBS, TNT, TruTV and the Discovery Channel.

The news follows months of speculation and anxiety in the larger entertainment and media sector surrounding the potential sale of Warner Bros. Discovery. Ellison’s Paramount was the first and, arguably, most aggressive bidder at roughly $27 per share for the whole of Warner Bros. Discovery. Netflix and Comcast came in later to solidify an intense horse race.

The bidding war saw highest offers submitted Monday. Paramount went nuclear Thursday morning, accusing Netflix of impropriety surrounding its bid for the legendary studio, arguing that it “has a credible basis to believe that the sales process has been tainted by management conflicts, including certain members of management’s potential personal interests in post-transaction roles and compensation.”

Paramount’s offer submitted on Monday included financial backing of three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, Variety reported.

Should Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery reach a deal, it would mark a seismic transformation to the media landscape. As the leader in paid streaming services, Netflix has grown into far and away the biggest company in Hollywood. The streamer has never acquired a major studio before; it instead reached its dominant position by starting as the first premier streamer, beginning with a library of licensed content from traditional studios before developing its own projects in-house. A deal would give Netflix rights to the Warner Bros. library and its IP, including comic book characters at DC Studios, acclaimed HBO series, Harry Potter and over 100 years of output from the film studio.

A potential acquisition is also expected to face antitrust scrutiny. On Thursday, Variety exclusively reported that a consortium of A-list talent signed an open letter to Congress, imploring members to speak out against a Netflix deal and arguing that the streamer would “effectively hold a noose around the theatrical marketplace” by reducing output to movie theaters and forcing down subsequent licensing fees for home video windows. The statement was signed anonymously, with an explanation that it was done so “not out of cowardice” but fear of retaliation, given Netflix’s considerable power in the marketplace.

Abu Dhabi fund sues to block a controversial continuation fund deal

The deal roiling the world of continuation funds 

Continuation funds, the complex vehicles private equity firms use to sell assets between their funds, have for years been a special interest for DD. 

We have outlined the fraught nature of these deals in which a PE firm is both the seller of an asset and its buyer, an inherent conflict.

Kaye Wiggins, DD’s legal expert, offered epic but prescient deep dives into continuation funds years ago during the exuberant capital markets environment of the early 2020s.

In 2022, DD outlined all of the ways the deals could prove to be problematic, including the incentives for PE firms to use the vehicles to reset lucrative management and performance fees on ageing deals.

At the time, we thought markets were booming. Little did we know the party was just getting started. Continuation funds now account for a staggering 19 per cent of PE exits.

But while we have heard in hushed voices critiques of alleged conflicts and stress in the investment community, few fights have become public. 

On Wednesday evening DD’s Antoine Gara scooped what is the most prominent fight in the continuation fund world after Abu Dhabi Investment Council sued to block a large deal from moving forward. 

The sovereign fund sought to block Energy & Minerals Group from selling its stake in Ascent Resources, one of America’s largest private gas drillers, to one of the private equity firm’s sister funds.

It alleged the deal undervalued Ascent while generating a windfall for the new fund managed by EMG. It further said the PE firm ran a flawed process.

The sovereign wealth fund’s complaint makes for good reading on all of the alleged ways in which the continuation vehicle deal favoured the PE firm orchestrating the transaction. (Lex offered a take on the drama as well.)

The lawsuit, filed in Delaware, has many rounds to go and will be a good barometer on whether more standard rules for CV deals are needed. 

On Thursday, the PE firm agreed to halt the deal subject to arbitration, instead of closing as it had planned to do by year-end.

Singapore’s sovereign wealth behemoths confront lagging returns

Singapore is the envy of the world in many regards, from its 10-second airport clearance time to its numerous Michelin-starred street-food vendors.

But when it comes to sovereign wealth fund investment returns? Not so much.

Despite being an island nation of just 6mn people, Singapore boasts two of the world’s biggest and best resourced state-owned investors: Temasek and GIC.

The FT’s Owen Walker took a deep dive into the reasons for their poor performance and how the funds are trying to make their portfolios more resilient in the face of more volatile market conditions to come.

DD readers are likely aware of the two financial behemoths, as they frequently pop up in deals around the world, from Silicon Valley to Shanghai.

Yet each has averaged an annual rate of return of just 5 per cent over the past decade. That places them well within the bottom quartile of a cohort of 50 similar institutions around the world.

At the same time, their importance to Singapore’s economy cannot be overestimated. 

Contributions from Temasek and GIC — along with Singapore’s central bank — account for about 20 per cent of the city-state’s budget and have enabled it to maintain a surplus for much of the past two decades. 

Their performance will be even more critical as Singapore’s population ages and becomes more reliant on the state.

“Their fund performance is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about,” said Diego López, managing director of Global SWF, who is based in the city-state.

Four top lieutenants have left in the past 12 months while dozens of others defect to rivals

Apple AAPL -1.21%decrease; red down pointing triangle is facing a wave of executive departures as the company continues a period of transition, not only among its leadership but, if rivals have their way, for its business as well.

On Thursday, the company announced that its general counsel and head of policy will both retire next year. On Wednesday, a top designer left for Meta Platforms. On Monday, Apple said its head of artificial-intelligence strategy would retire. Its chief operating officer announced his retirement in July, and its chief financial officer has transitioned to a new role.

The executive departures underscore a changing of the guard under way at Apple, even as Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook himself shows no sign of stepping down. Cook and his new lieutenants face a critical test preparing Apple for the AI era and the wave of new competitive devices that result.

Further down the org chart, dozens of Apple employees have defected to OpenAI and Meta in recent months, part of a long-term brain drain that has robbed the company of innovators and seeded rivals with expertise they hope to use to dethrone the digital-device king.

Apple’s reign will continue as long as consumers access their online services on its device. And that dominion over the means of app distribution rankles other tech heavyweights who are trying to find ways to control their own destinies, including Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman and Elon Musk.

Zuckerberg this week hired Apple’s Alan Dye, a top Apple designer, after hiring away a handful of Apple’s key AI staffers during a recruiting blitz he embarked on as he sought to revamp Meta’s AI work. After his effort to create a “metaverse” to supplant the iPhone failed, he has now turned his attention to AI and smartglasses to achieve the same goal.

Altman paid $6.5 billion to “acqui-hire” Steve Jobs’s protégé Jony Ive, who helped build the iPhone and the Apple Watch, along with Ive’s team that comes with other ex-Apple heavyweights. They are planning an AI device that they hope will be the future of computing. The new hardware arm of OpenAI has been hiring aggressively from the iPhone maker recently as well.

Dozens of Apple engineers and designers with expertise in audio, watch design, robotics and more have decamped to OpenAI in recent months, according to a review of LinkedIn profiles.

Musk has at times considered building a smartphone himself owing to frustration with Apple’s dominance, The Wall Street Journal has reported. His social-media platform, X, is suing Apple because he is unhappy about the placement of his own AI app in the App Store.

None is an immediate threat. Consumers’ lives are on their iPhones. There isn’t yet a killer AI app that would make them move their digital selves, much less a device that offers it.

Yet without a coherent AI strategy of its own, one that can convince customers and employees that the company can play a meaningful role developing the defining technology of the decade, Apple is leaving an opening for rivals.

One executive still firmly encamped at Apple is Cook. Despite turning 65 last month, an age at which many CEOs are contemplating retirement, Cook hasn’t slowed down. He has demonstrated his value to shareholders again this year by deftly handling President Trump, beating back the threat of tariffs and returning Apple’s stock to record territory.

If he can deliver successful AI products before he departs, Cook can secure his legacy as one of the great tech executives, while giving his successor a running start.

News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a commercial agreement to supply news through Apple services. It has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.

Chinese challenger to Nvidia surges fivefold in market debut

Investors bet Moore Threads will benefit from Beijing’s drive to reduce dependence on US chipmaker

A Chinese chipmaker founded by a former Nvidia executive has surged fivefold in its market debut as investors bet on Beijing’s drive to reduce the country’s reliance on the US chip giant for artificial intelligence needs.

Beijing-based Moore Threads raised Rmb8bn ($1.1bn) in its listing on Shanghai’s tech-focused Star Market on Friday, marking the second-largest mainland initial public offering this year.

Shares of mainland Chinese chipmakers and chip designers have soared this year as investors bet on Beijing’s efforts to create a local supply chain for components crucial to the AI boom.

Washington has barred Nvidia from selling its most advanced AI processors in China, while Beijing has instructed its tech companies to transition away from the products.

Founded in 2020 by Zhang Jianzhong, a former senior Nvidia executive in China, Moore Threads is viewed as a second-tier domestic chipmaker, lagging far behind Huawei and chip designer Cambricon in market share.

Analysts at Bernstein estimate Moore Threads will sell $58mn worth of chips this year, compared with roughly $10bn each for Huawei and Nvidia.

By 2026, Huawei’s sales are forecast to rise to $12bn, representing about half of China’s AI chip market, while Moore Threads is projected to generate $93mn.

Nvidia’s China sales are expected to plunge to $2bn next year, with its market share sliding from 40 per cent in 2025 to 8 per cent amid Washington’s curbs.

Lawmakers are debating whether to allow Nvidia to sell its less advanced H200 chips in China, with advocates of the move arguing the US should keep Chinese tech companies dependent on American technology to entrench its leadership in AI.

The lossmaking Moore Threads secured fast-track approval to list after regulators this year eased profitability requirements for companies seeking to float on the Star Market, in an effort to boost capital raising for strategic sectors.

The company, backed by venture capital firm HongShan, formerly Sequoia Capital China, designs graphics processing units, initially for gaming but now adapted for training large language models used in AI — a trajectory mirroring Nvidia’s.

By contrast, Huawei and Cambricon primarily develop application-specific integrated circuit chips, which were originally optimised for narrower computer vision applications before being re-engineered for generative AI work.

There has been a shortage of Chinese-made AI chips this year because of constrained capacity at domestic plants.

Moore Threads was added to the US entity list in October 2023, cutting off its access to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which produces most of the world’s AI chips.

The company has since moved manufacturing to mainland Chinese contractor Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, which has lower chip yields and more expensive production processes.

Moore Threads is the first in a series of AI chipmakers expected to go public in either Hong Kong or mainland China. MetaX recently won approval to list on Shanghai’s Star Market. Biren and Enflame are also planning to go public in Hong Kong.

As Grands Prix become multimillion-dollar mega-events, long-term contracts with cities and authorities are now the norm

Earlier this year Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins NFL team, renewed a deal with F1 to host the Miami Grand Prix on a circuit around his stadium until 2041. Few were surprised by the length of the deal, such has been the recent growth in F1’s popularity: the sport has a global fan base of more than 827mn, a 63 per cent increase since 2018, and slots on the 24-race calendar are extremely scarce. The resulting trend has been for most promoters — the organisations that arrange the individual races at each venue — to strike long-term contracts, to 2035 and beyond.

F1 Grands Prix are now far more than sporting events; they combine entertainment, gastronomy and culture, over four days. The Las Vegas Grand Prix generated $934mn in economic impact in 2024, attracting more than 300,000 fans, and in just three years it has become the city’s largest annual event. The Brazil race this year brought an economic impact of R$ 2.3bn ($425mn) to the city of São Paulo.

“These are mega projects. They require major investment but, on the flip side, they are generating phenomenal economic return,” says Louise Young, director of race promotion at F1. “These are projects which sustain supply chains, communities and economies locally. These are, in many cases, the biggest events that happen in these countries or cities, and they become attached to the time of year that they’re scheduled.”

The F1 calendar comprises 24 races in 21 countries. The Americas host six, with Austin, Montreal, Mexico City and São Paulo alongside Miami and Las Vegas. There are four in the Middle East: Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Further east are Japan, Singapore, China and Australia, then Europe.

“For now, we think 24 is the right number of events for us, for the teams, for the quality of our product,” says Young. “We don’t see growth in the promoter business coming necessarily out of more events. We see growth around optimisation and changes to the calendar.

“It has been mooted that there will be rotation in the future, perhaps some rationalisation about our presence in Europe,” Young adds. “We hope to add perhaps one more destination in Asia. There are a number of prospects in Africa; we hope to find a partner who can be that long-term stable presence.” Although growth in the US market remains F1’s main priority, it has no current plans to add races there. 

For promoters such as Miami and Silverstone, home of the British Grand Prix, which has a contract to 2034, long-term agreements make for better investment planning.

“It allows us to continue to invest in F1 and for F1 to continue to invest in their US strategy. Miami is a key piece of that strategy for them,” says Kathy Nowak, president of the Miami GP.

“When we’re planning, dreaming up different things we can do, we’re thinking about the next 16 years, rather than the next five.

The biggest challenge we have, which is unique, is we don’t just operate a circuit. We operate a venue that’s active almost 365 days a year with different events,” Nowak adds. “So if we were to go permanent on any type of structure, we need to contemplate the use of that 365, given that we also do Dolphins, soccer, concerts and Open tennis.”

Next year Nowak and her team will have a tight turnaround after the Grand Prix in May to be ready to host matches in the Fifa World Cup. “We start building the Grand Prix in January, and all the temporary structures need to be out before June 1, because Fifa is loading in,” Nowak explains.

There is significant diversity between F1 promoters, from big sports businesses such as the Dolphins, to automobile clubs in Monaco and Italy, and government agencies in Melbourne. This diversity contributes to the individuality and unique character of each Grand Prix, something F1 and its owner Liberty Media value highly. When it acquired the sport from CVC Capital Partners in 2017, Liberty’s management team saw the financial stability and growth of promoters as a key priority. 

“[We believed that] to have our promoters grow and benefit from the ecosystem would in turn pay dividends,” says Young. “We want promoters who are ambitious, who are investing, who have an eye to the future and want to grow the fan base domestically and internationally. Our success is the promoter’s success and vice versa.”

Stuart Pringle, chief executive of Silverstone Circuit, had extensive experience of dealing with Bernie Ecclestone, F1 chief executive under CVC’s ownership, when promoters would come and go, and sometimes go out of business. “Liberty values the relationships with promoters — [investing] more time into working together and collaboratively growing the product for the benefit of the fans,” he says. “It feels far more collaborative nowadays.

“Longer contract length gives promoters long-term certainty and confidence to invest in facilities and grow relationships with local partners. In our case that is ‘Destination Silverstone’ and future motorsport talent, in our karting and young driver programmes or young engineers in education programmes based at Silverstone.”

Promoters are finding that the profile of their customers is changing, with 43 per cent of the total fan base now under 35 and 42 per cent of them female.

“Our audience tends to lean younger and we’re seeing more female audiences,” says Nowak of the Miami GP. “We’ve got newer fans, coming to experience the party, the festival likeness of the event. You’re going to see world-class racing action on track. But you’re also able to leave your seats and experience Miami through the food and beverage, through the entertainment. We’re catering to that younger fan looking for an all-day experience.”