Startups
Digital business models: where the money really comes from
The most profitable companies on the planet give their products away, charge tiny sums or sell nothing tangible. Yet they are worth trillions. Behind that contradiction lies a handful of models that rewrote the rules of value creation: subscription, advertising, the marketplace and free.
Profitability and value creation: reading a company
A company can double its revenue and still grow poorer. Reported profit is not the cash in the bank, and EBITDA flatters more than it informs. Behind the words "profit" and "return" hide different measures that decide a firm's real fate. This Fundamental unpacks five indicators, from cash to return on capital, to learn how to read a company for what it is truly worth.
SpaceX IPO: $1.8T valuation on $18.7B of revenue
Investment banks are pricing SpaceX at USD 1.8 trillion for a company that lost USD 4.94 billion last year. That is not a miscalculation, it is a method. And that method applies to every valuation you will ever read.
Mergers and acquisitions: how M&A deals work
Every year, thousands of companies merge or get acquired for trillions of dollars combined. Yet studies consistently find that most deals fail to deliver their promised value. This Fundamental breaks down how M&A actually works: why companies pursue deals, what due diligence really uncovers, why synergies are so often overpromised, and what separates the transactions that create lasting value from those that quietly destroy it.
Meta bought Manus. China made it undo the deal
Meta acquired Manus for $2 billion. Four months later, the Chinese government ordered the deal unwound. A global first that shows how mergers and acquisitions, the operations that reshape jobs, products and strategies worldwide, can fail in ways no one anticipated.
Starship V3 flies: the real stakes of the space race
On May 22, 2026, SpaceX launched Starship V3, the most powerful rocket ever built. Behind the spectacle, three things were at stake at once: a race to land humans on the Moon before 2030, a stock market debut targeted for June 12 at a $1.75 trillion valuation, and the expansion of Starlink, the only division in the company already turning a profit.
The new space economy: how private industry took over
For sixty years, space was a government monopoly. Then a handful of private companies cut the cost of reaching orbit by 95% in a decade. Who are these players, why are they betting billions on low Earth orbit, and what does that mean for everyone else on the ground?
Business valuation: how companies are priced
DCF, market multiples, asset-based valuation, Berkus, VC Method, business valuation isn’t one technique but a family of competing approaches that often produce wildly different numbers for the same company. Here’s how to read them, and when each one actually applies.
How companies raise money: from love money to IPO
Every publicly listed company started with a bank transfer between friends or a maxed-out credit card. Between that moment and ringing the stock exchange bell lies a precise sequence of funding rounds, each with its own logic, its own investors, and its own trade-offs.