North Carolina treasurer passes on SpaceX citing valuation concerns; favors OpenAI, Anthropic

Cnbc · Jun 10, 2026 · 394 words · By Yun Li

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What to know about North Carolina treasurer passes on SpaceX citing valuation concerns; favors OpenAI, Anthropic

North Carolina state Treasurer Brad Briner said the year's hottest IPO is too expensive for his pension fund to own.

Claims checked 8

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

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Center100%

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5 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

North Carolina state Treasurer Brad Briner said the year's hottest IPO is too expensive for his pension fund to own.

Why it matters

Briner, who oversees roughly $200 billion for North Carolina's teachers, firefighters and police officers, said the state has invested heavily in artificial intelligence startups OpenAI and Anthropic while avoiding a direct stake in SpaceX — expected to go…

Common ground

"There's been a pricing issue that we've been concerned about for the last year or so with SpaceX," Briner said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: North Carolina treasurer passes on SpaceX citing valuation concerns; favors OpenAI, Anthropic?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that the Elon Musk-led company's $1.77 trillion valuation?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/10/north-carolina-treasurer-passes-on-spacex-citing…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 8 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 8

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Claim 1: “the Elon Musk-led company's $1.77 trillion valuation”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent sources (CNBC, Flipboard) report a valuation of $1.77 trillion.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Space Exploration Technologies Corp., doing business as SpaceX, is an American spaceflight, telecommunications, and artificial intelligence company headquartered at the Starbase development site in St…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — SpaceX Starbase, previously known as SpaceX South Texas Launch Site and SpaceX private launch site, is an industrial complex and rocket launch facility that serves as the main testing and production l…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starbase

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Starship is a two-stage, fully reusable, super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by American aerospace company SpaceX. Currently built and launched from Starbase in Texas, it is intended as …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship

+ 5 more evidence sources

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Claim 2: “the state has invested heavily in artificial intelligence startups OpenAI and Anthropic”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent web sources report that North Carolina has invested in OpenAI and Anthropic.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — An AI boom is a period of rapid growth in the field of artificial intelligence. The most recent boom happened in the 2020s before seeing increased acceleration and media coverage. Examples of this inc…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_boom

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Gemini is a family of multimodal large language models (LLMs) developed by Google DeepMind, and the successor to LaMDA and PaLM 2. Comprising Gemini Pro, Gemini Deep Think, Gemini Flash, and Gemini Fl…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(language_model)

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In the field of artificial intelligence (AI), a hallucination or artificial hallucination (also called bullshitting, confabulation, or delusion) is a response generated by AI that contains false or mi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucination_(artificial_inte…

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 3: “committed roughly $250 million to Anthropic earlier this year, a position he said is now worth more than $600 million.”

CORROBORATED

Two separate web search results report the $250 million commitment to Anthropic and its current value of over $600 million.

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web search NEUTRAL — Anthropic is committed to an inclusive application and candidate experience. If you need a reasonable accommodation due to a disability to participate fully in any part of our process, please use this…
https://www.anthropic.com/careers

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web search NEUTRAL — Briner said North Carolina invested about $40 million in OpenAI and committed roughly $250 million to Anthropic earlier this year. That position is now worth more than $600 million.
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/spacex-1-7…

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web search NEUTRAL — The company is also an early investor in Anthropic, initially pouring $550 million into the AI start-up. It has since invested more than $8 billion in the company, giving it a roughly 10% ownership st…
https://www.fool.com/investing/how-to-invest/stocks/how-to-i…

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Claim 4: “The rocket maker plans to sell 555.6 million shares at $135 apiece, raising about $75 billion and valuing the aerospace company at roughly $1.8 trillion.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple web sources (Reuters, LinkedIn, and filings) confirm the specific figures: 555.6 million shares at $135, raising $75 billion, with a valuation of ~$1.8 trillion (or $1.77 trillion).

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+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 5: “North Carolina invested about $40 million in OpenAI”

CORROBORATED

Two separate web search results report the specific $40 million investment in OpenAI by North Carolina.

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web search NEUTRAL — Briner said North Carolina invested about $40 million in OpenAI and committed roughly $250 million to Anthropic earlier this year. That position is now worth more than $600 million.
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/spacex-1-75-trillion-big-1…

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web search NEUTRAL — North Carolina invested about $40 million in OpenAI and committed roughly $250 million to Anthropic earlier this year, a position he said is now worth more than $600 million.
https://wordupnews.com/cryptocurrency/north-carolina-treasur…

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web search NEUTRAL — 21:40. Why Young People Are Rejecting AIApple Explained210K views • 1 month agoLivePlaylist ()Mix (50+). 10:04.OpenAI is in SERIOUS trouble... Is this GREAT news?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUgF7MoUetk

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Claim 6: “SpaceX is scheduled to price its IPO on Thursday and begin trading on Friday.”

CORROBORATED

Confirmed by NY Post, Dailymotion (citing CBS News), and other web search results that pricing was Thursday and trading began Friday.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — SpaceX conducted 134 Falcon family vehicle launches (132 Falcon 9 and 2 Falcon Heavy) in 2024, including the failed Starlink Group 9-3 mission. It again broke the global single-year launch record of 9…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_He…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — As of July 30, 2026, rockets from the Falcon 9 family have been launched 683 times, with 680 full mission successes, two mission failures during launch, one mission failure before launch, and one part…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_He…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — X, formerly known as Twitter, is an American microblogging and social networking service owned by SpaceX's artificial intelligence subsidiary SpaceXAI. It is one of the world's largest social media pl…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_(social_network)

+ 4 more evidence sources

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Claim 7: “Briner, who oversees roughly $200 billion for North Carolina's teachers, firefighters and police officers”

CORROBORATED

Multiple web search results and Wikipedia confirm Brad Briner is the NC State Treasurer and oversee roughly $200 billion for teachers, firefighters, and police.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 2024 North Carolina State Treasurer election was held on November 5, 2024, to elect the North Carolina State Treasurer, concurrently with elections to the U.S. House of Representatives, governor, …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_North_Carolina_State_Trea…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Bradford B. Briner (born 1976/1977) is an American politician from North Carolina. He is the North Carolina State Treasurer. He is a Republican. Briner was born in Dallas, Texas. He graduated from Phi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Briner

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The North Carolina State Treasurer is a statewide elected office in the U.S. state of North Carolina responsible for overseeing the financial operations of state government. The current state treasure…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_State_Treasurer

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 8: “SpaceX — expected to go public Friday”

CORROBORATED

Cross-referenced reports from CNBC and NY Post both state SpaceX was slated to start trading on Friday.

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cross reference SUPPORTS — On Friday, SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket company, will become the first of three monster initial public offerings expected this year.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/07/the-6-big-things-were-watchi…

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cross reference SUPPORTS — All will be coming public this year starting with SpaceX, which slated to price next Thursday and start trading as early as Friday.
https://nypost.com/2026/06/05/business/why-big-tech-ipos-sta…

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.